Google Announces Android
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Google and a group of hardware and mobile companies announced Android in November 2007 through the Open Handset Alliance. Unlike Apple’s tightly integrated iPhone, Android was presented as a software platform that many manufacturers and carriers could adapt to their own devices.
The stack combined a Linux kernel with middleware, a Java-oriented application framework, and the Dalvik virtual machine. Applications were packaged separately and ran with process and permission isolation, giving developers a consistent model even when hardware differed between manufacturers.
No Android phone was on sale yet; the first commercial device would arrive in 2008. But the announcement defined the competitive structure of the smartphone market. Google would provide a common software base and services, while companies such as HTC, Samsung, and others could build different hardware around it. That openness to multiple vendors became Android’s greatest advantage and one of its biggest sources of fragmentation.