Android's Humble Beginnings

In the early 2000s, Android was on the cusp of something big. The company, which had been founded by Ruben Etxeberria, was looking to create an operating system for mobile devices. At first, the team had a vision for digital cameras, but they eventually shifted their focus to smartphones. This change in direction proved to be a turning point for Android.

The early days of Android were marked by struggles. The company was on the verge of bankruptcy, and Ruben even took out a personal loan from a friend to keep the project going. However, things began to turn around when the Android team met with Google in January 2005. This meeting would prove to be a crucial turning point for the company, as it led to a partnership between Google and Android.

In the second meeting later that year, the Android team showed off a prototype of their mobile operating system. Apparently, this was enough to impress Google, which ultimately purchased Android for a small $50 million. So, why did Google decide to buy Android? It's likely that Google wanted to move beyond its main focus on the PC platform at the time and enter the mobile market.

Google also hired Ruben as their senior vice president of mobile and digital content. The company set a goal to capture nine percent of the market share in North America and Europe in the following five years. However, by 2010, Android had already surpassed Google's initial goal, holding 24% of the market share in North America.

The Android operating system was built with an open-source model, which made it incredibly appealing to manufacturers. This barrier-to-entry for developers was significantly reduced, as they could now develop their own software on top of Android. The Android Open Source Project (AOSSP) is still around today, and this allowed manufacturers like HTC and Samsung to jump on board quickly.

The first smartphone running Android was manufactured by HTC in 2008. Although it received less-than-ideal reviews from the media, it marked a significant turning point for the operating system. Shortly thereafter, in 2009, Samsung released its Galaxy phone running Android 1.5 or "Android Cupcake," which featured groundbreaking features such as the ability to rotate content when rotating the display.

The success of Android was not just due to its technical capabilities but also its flexibility and customizability. As smartphones became increasingly popular, manufacturers began to offer their own versions of Android, each with unique features and designs. Today, Android is the dominant operating system in the smartphone market, used by a vast majority of devices worldwide.

The Rise and Fall of Digital Cameras

Android was originally built for digital cameras, which were getting better and better each passing year but had one major flaw: storage. Reuben pursued this original idea, but it ultimately proved to be less successful than he had anticipated. Had Android not developed as a smartphone operating system, it's possible that Symbian OS would have taken over instead.

Windows Mobile was also around for years but was slowly losing market share. BlackBerry, on the other hand, was growing incredibly fast and was seen as the default OS for business professionals. However, with the rise of Android, these trends began to shift.

The Android open-source model played a significant role in its success. By allowing manufacturers to develop their own software on top of Android, Google created a powerful ecosystem that attracted a vast array of developers and manufacturers. This flexibility and customizability made Android the default choice for many devices.

The Future of 5G

In recent years, the mobile market has been pushing towards 5G technology. As a result, many people are wondering whether 5G is worth considering when purchasing a new phone. According to our team member, 5G might be worth it, as it will provide better performance and future-proof your device.

Gabriel P asks if you will root your phone to customize the look or feel or even the performance of it. According to our team, we probably won't do that anymore. Back in the day, yes, we totally would have done that and did it. However, phones are now so good and powerful that you don't really need to.

Instead, users can customize their phone using launchers and third-party solutions, as seen on our last video. This has made Android a much more accessible and user-friendly operating system. So, to answer your question, no, we probably won't root our phone again.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: entoday android has been around for ages but did you know that android os was originally built for something other than smartphones i'm luke pock with android authority and today we're going to talk about the popular os that was originally developed for digital cameras this video was adapted from articles over on our site if you would like to learn more about android's origins check out the links down below back in 2004 co-founder of android andy rubin was trying to get funding for a new project he called android the idea was simple at the time digital camera storage was relatively small and still pretty expensive by today's standards reuben wanted to solve this problem by building a platform for digital cameras that relied on cloud storage instead of physical storage this would give users the ability to view their uploaded photos and videos from any device instead of having to rely on on-device hardware but unfortunately back in 2004 interest from investors was pretty low and reuben didn't end up getting his project funded but that didn't stop android reuben and his team realized that the digital camera market was too small to get their project off the ground which led them to pivoting towards mobile handsets now in order to understand the significance or gravity of this pivot we have to look at the mobile competitors at the time palm os symbian os and windows mobile were the tech giants in the early 2000s while underdogs like blackberry were just getting off the ground but what all of these os's had in common was that they were paid platform companies had to license in one form or another to gain access to use these mobile operating systems on its hardware reuben and his team on the other hand wanted to make android free and open source their goal was to create a platform for selling services and products such as apps and games android had a lot going for it and because it was free it was that much easier to pitch to phone manufacturers still android funding and a lot of it as it turned out the company was broke and ruben even took out a personal loan from a friend to keep the project going fortunately in january of 2005 the android team met with google and in the second meeting later that year they even showed off a prototype of their mobile os apparently that was good enough for google and the tech giant purchased android for a small 50 million dollars now as for why google decided to buy android it's likely that google wanted to move beyond its main focus on the pc platform at the time and move into the mobile market now google also hired ruben as their senior vice president of mobile and digital content and set a goal to capture nine percent of the market share in north america and europe in the following five years now maybe somewhat unsurprisingly by 2010 android held 24 of the market share in north america which completely shattered google's initial goal so it makes sense that android was originally built for digital cameras at the time digital cameras were getting better and better each passing year but they had one flaw storage had reuben pursued this original idea cameras might have been in a far different place today but it's even more interesting to think about what other operating systems would have taken over had android not developed back in the early 2000s symbian os was growing fast and while windows mobile had been around for years they were slowly losing their market share blackberry on the other hand was growing incredibly fast as well and so long as android wasn't around they were the default os for business professionals but i think what made android so unique and so appealing was its open source model in fact the android open source project or aesop is still around today and this made the barrier to entry for manufacturers incredibly small now manufacturers wouldn't necessarily need to license software from competitors like microsoft and symbian know now they could develop their own software on top of android which made android the default choice obviously now it's not that simple but back in the late 2000s manufacturers like htc and samsung were quick to jump on board in fact the first smartphone running android was manufactured by htc in 2008 the t-mobile g1 or the htc dream as it was known in other countries now although that phone received less than ideal reviews from the media it was still a launching point for the os in fact shortly thereafter in 2009 the first samsung galaxy phone ran android 1.5 or android cupcake which featured groundbreaking features such as the ability to rotate content when rotating the display the point is android was built for success in the mobile market had they continued with cameras they probably would not have been successful i mean just look at the numbers in 2007 smartphone sales rose from 122 million to 1.5 billion in 2019 digital camera sales on the other hand declined from around 100 million in 2007 to just 15 million in 2019. sure that could have changed that android been to default os for cameras but as we saw in 2012 samsung galaxy camera android on a digital camera didn't really work out that well then again it's pretty interesting to think about what android would have looked like running on canon or sony well that's going to wrap it up for this one let me know if you want to see more of these types of did you know videos also let me know any tech related questions or comments and i'll be sure to read them at the end of the next episode that's gonna be it i'm luke park with android authority and i'll catch you in the next video hari christian asks is 5g a thing to consider when purchasing a new phone at present i'd say it probably is i mean considering that the mobile market now is really pushing 5g it's just going to be better to buy 5g phone if you want to quote unquote future proof you in the future so i think 5g is definitely worth it and probably something i would consider if i'm buying a new phone gabriel p asks will you root your phone to customize the look or feel or even the performance of it i'd say probably not i mean back in the day yes i totally would have done that and i did do that but phones are just so good and so powerful that you don't really need to now sure if you really want to customize your device to the absolute max you can root it but for me it's just something that i don't really need to do i can customize my phone pretty much do whatever i want using like launchers and third-party solutions as you saw on the last video so to answer your question no i probably won't alright that's gonna wrap it up see ya youtoday android has been around for ages but did you know that android os was originally built for something other than smartphones i'm luke pock with android authority and today we're going to talk about the popular os that was originally developed for digital cameras this video was adapted from articles over on our site if you would like to learn more about android's origins check out the links down below back in 2004 co-founder of android andy rubin was trying to get funding for a new project he called android the idea was simple at the time digital camera storage was relatively small and still pretty expensive by today's standards reuben wanted to solve this problem by building a platform for digital cameras that relied on cloud storage instead of physical storage this would give users the ability to view their uploaded photos and videos from any device instead of having to rely on on-device hardware but unfortunately back in 2004 interest from investors was pretty low and reuben didn't end up getting his project funded but that didn't stop android reuben and his team realized that the digital camera market was too small to get their project off the ground which led them to pivoting towards mobile handsets now in order to understand the significance or gravity of this pivot we have to look at the mobile competitors at the time palm os symbian os and windows mobile were the tech giants in the early 2000s while underdogs like blackberry were just getting off the ground but what all of these os's had in common was that they were paid platform companies had to license in one form or another to gain access to use these mobile operating systems on its hardware reuben and his team on the other hand wanted to make android free and open source their goal was to create a platform for selling services and products such as apps and games android had a lot going for it and because it was free it was that much easier to pitch to phone manufacturers still android funding and a lot of it as it turned out the company was broke and ruben even took out a personal loan from a friend to keep the project going fortunately in january of 2005 the android team met with google and in the second meeting later that year they even showed off a prototype of their mobile os apparently that was good enough for google and the tech giant purchased android for a small 50 million dollars now as for why google decided to buy android it's likely that google wanted to move beyond its main focus on the pc platform at the time and move into the mobile market now google also hired ruben as their senior vice president of mobile and digital content and set a goal to capture nine percent of the market share in north america and europe in the following five years now maybe somewhat unsurprisingly by 2010 android held 24 of the market share in north america which completely shattered google's initial goal so it makes sense that android was originally built for digital cameras at the time digital cameras were getting better and better each passing year but they had one flaw storage had reuben pursued this original idea cameras might have been in a far different place today but it's even more interesting to think about what other operating systems would have taken over had android not developed back in the early 2000s symbian os was growing fast and while windows mobile had been around for years they were slowly losing their market share blackberry on the other hand was growing incredibly fast as well and so long as android wasn't around they were the default os for business professionals but i think what made android so unique and so appealing was its open source model in fact the android open source project or aesop is still around today and this made the barrier to entry for manufacturers incredibly small now manufacturers wouldn't necessarily need to license software from competitors like microsoft and symbian know now they could develop their own software on top of android which made android the default choice obviously now it's not that simple but back in the late 2000s manufacturers like htc and samsung were quick to jump on board in fact the first smartphone running android was manufactured by htc in 2008 the t-mobile g1 or the htc dream as it was known in other countries now although that phone received less than ideal reviews from the media it was still a launching point for the os in fact shortly thereafter in 2009 the first samsung galaxy phone ran android 1.5 or android cupcake which featured groundbreaking features such as the ability to rotate content when rotating the display the point is android was built for success in the mobile market had they continued with cameras they probably would not have been successful i mean just look at the numbers in 2007 smartphone sales rose from 122 million to 1.5 billion in 2019 digital camera sales on the other hand declined from around 100 million in 2007 to just 15 million in 2019. sure that could have changed that android been to default os for cameras but as we saw in 2012 samsung galaxy camera android on a digital camera didn't really work out that well then again it's pretty interesting to think about what android would have looked like running on canon or sony well that's going to wrap it up for this one let me know if you want to see more of these types of did you know videos also let me know any tech related questions or comments and i'll be sure to read them at the end of the next episode that's gonna be it i'm luke park with android authority and i'll catch you in the next video hari christian asks is 5g a thing to consider when purchasing a new phone at present i'd say it probably is i mean considering that the mobile market now is really pushing 5g it's just going to be better to buy 5g phone if you want to quote unquote future proof you in the future so i think 5g is definitely worth it and probably something i would consider if i'm buying a new phone gabriel p asks will you root your phone to customize the look or feel or even the performance of it i'd say probably not i mean back in the day yes i totally would have done that and i did do that but phones are just so good and so powerful that you don't really need to now sure if you really want to customize your device to the absolute max you can root it but for me it's just something that i don't really need to do i can customize my phone pretty much do whatever i want using like launchers and third-party solutions as you saw on the last video so to answer your question no i probably won't alright that's gonna wrap it up see ya you\n"