Android turns 5 today!

November 5, 2007

It was exactly five years ago today that Google and 33 other partners announced the Open Handset Alliance.  Some of you may recall that the weeks leading up to the unveiling were full of rumors that Google was ready to take on Apple with a handset of its own.  Rather than giving us all the much-anticipated gPhone, Google decided to go much bigger and unveil an open sourced platform – Android. Together, with this conglomerate of industry leaders, the OHA was going to provide the world with new tools and a fresh approach to mobile technology. Consumers were told to expect the first phones based on Android (T-Mobile G1) to be available in the second half of 2008.

“This partnership will help unleash the potential of mobile technology for billions of users around the world. A fresh approach to fostering innovation in the mobile industry will help shape a new computing environment that will change the way people access and share information in the future,” said Google Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt. “Today’s announcement is more ambitious than any single ‘Google Phone’ that the press has been speculating about over the past few weeks. Our vision is that the powerful platform we’re unveiling will power thousands of different phone models.”

 

Although announced on November 5th, the first Android SDK would not be released for another week.

The SDK contains a rich set of tools for developers to build applications for the Android platform. Included are advanced development and debugging tools, a rich set of libraries, a true device emulator, in-depth documentation, sample projects, tutorials, FAQs, and more.

The Open Handset Alliance would later go on to add new members over the years, most recently bringing Andango into the mix.  After starting out with 34 total players, the OHA has grown to 84 firms including a variety of mobile handset makers, application developers, mobile carriers and chip makers.

The birth of AndroidGuys

It was also this day that AndroidGuys was born.  I remember watching the news feeds like crazy, wanting to glean all that I could about Google’s ambitions.  Together, with four of my best friends, we went on to create a blog that we would use to share information with one another.  As terrific as everything sounded that day, we had no idea just how big this thing would get.  Android is now the number one mobile platform in the world, powering new and cutting edge devices that seem to come out on a weekly basis.

Our site has gone through a number of changes over the years, adding new help along the way.  The four guys who helped me quickly diminished as the next few months proved to be rather quite on the Android front.  With nothing more than rumors and supposition, we had to read the tea leaves as to what was going to happen.  Today, we have to determine what doesn’t get covered on the site; there is simply too much to pass along – every single day.  Just ask Rob at Phandroid,  he’s been doing this since day one as well.

We’ve had a variety of growing pains, theme changes, and real-world obligations stand in the way from time to time, but I’m very proud of the site today.  As for my team, it too has grown over the years, and I couldn’t be more happy with the guys behind AndroidGuys.

If I had a magic phone…

Be sure to follow AndroidGuys on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube!



Related posts

Latest posts

Computer engineer has a new idea to recover his $765M of buried Bitcoin

Twelve years on and he's still looking for ways to recover his lost Bitcoin.

I can’t wait for the OLED MacBook Pro — but there’s bad news for MacBook Air fans

Want a MacBook with an OLED screen? A new report suggests there’s good news and bad news depending on whether you want a MacBook Pro or a MacBook Air.

The Motorola Razr Plus (2025) just leaked, and it’s far from exciting

Design of the Motorola's next flagship flip phone, the Motorola Razr Plus (2025), just leaked, and it reveals unexciting upgrades over the last 2024 model.

I’ve waited patiently for a MacBook revival. Dell already made one

I remember when Apple put the . That devious smile by CEO Tim Cook, appearing in his first action-filled ad spot and dropping a tech bombshell on a grossly unprepared audience. Oof! Tablet computing would never be the same again, I thought. Merely a week later, I spent a fortune on the iPad Pro and […]

The Lemokey L5 HE 8K pairs Hall Effect keys with ultra-fast polling rates

Lemokey's latest 75% gaming keyboard comes with Hall Effect switches and an 8,000Hz polling rate

This is why I love Circle to Search on the Galaxy S25 series

Since the was launched last year, phone makers have focused heavily on adding AI to every facet of their smartphones. Apple launched last year — which brought a different, more personal, approach to AI with the iPhone 16 — a few months after Google unveiled . Despite Google waiting to launch the full suite of […]

Lenovo is offering a 55% discount on this ThinkPad 2-in-1 laptop

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 9 laptop is versatile and powerful, and it's available with a 55% discount from Lenovo that translates to $1,743 in savings.

Intel Nova Lake: Everything we know so far

Intel Nova Lake CPUs are under development and coming in 2026: Here's what we know about them so far.

Samsung Galaxy S25 AI keyboard offers smart replies for WhatsApp & more

A new AI feature on the Samsung Galaxy S25 series has been uncovered.

The latest iOS update might have reactivated Apple Intelligence features

Some Apple users are reporting the most recent updates re-enabled Apple Intelligence features that had once been turned off.