Androids: The Missing Pieces, Part I
This is the first part of hopefully an ongoing series that further explores topics raised in the book Androids: The Team That Built the Android Operating System. See the introduction article for more context on this series.
This article was originally the final chapter of the book, before it was cut for brevity and focus. It takes a step back and summarizes everything else in the book to come up with an answer to my original question: How did Android succeed?
In 2005, when Google acquired Android, Symbian and Windows Mobile dominated the smartphone sector, with BlackBerry owning the enterprise market. The mobile carriers ruled the landscape with an iron fist, deciding which apps got pre-installed and demanding massive revenue shares. Building applications was extremely difficult due to fragmented SDKs and hostile developer terms.
Android succeeded because of a few crucial moves: first, making the operating system entirely open source and free of licensing fees for manufacturers. Second, creating a rich Java-based developer framework that made writing apps fun and fast compared to C++ on Symbian. And third, assembling a tight-knit team of engineers who had failed before on other platforms (BeOS, Palm, Danger) and knew exactly what mistakes to avoid. In the end, Android gave control back to the developers and consumers, reshaping the global ecosystem.