So what better place to start then right at the very beginning of the Android story? The operating system which now powered hundreds of millions of smartphones actually started its life tailored for cameras! Andy Rubin revealed the news earlier this week in Tokyo. While outlining Android's humble origins he said, "the exact same operating system we built for cameras…became Android for cellphones". Initially Andy Rubin connection to home PC's and then the subsequent option to connect to an “Android Datacenter.” The plan was supposedly only changed when the camera market was deemed to be a bit restrictive did Android's founders look to smartphones, just before they were snapped up by Google in 2005!
Rubin added that Android's goal is still to get the OS into as many hands as possible and the next significant milestones will be Android 5.0 and the one billion activations milestone! Talking of those activations it seems Google's work is relentless! Eric Schmidt updated us on the Android landscape today at Dive Into Mobile. He said that daily activations of Android devices are now at 1.5 million! That's up again from the 1.3 million activations we were seeing per day back in the Autumn of last year. With that in mind the one billion goal is becoming a very realistic target which we can expect to see reached by the end of the year! Schmidt said that when devices start to come onto the market with an average price of $100 then the sales figures will look even better still!
With so many sales it's vital that Google retains good relationships with their vendors and a key partner in this whole operation is Samsung. During the conference today the question and answer session turned to Google and Samsung's relationship, because there's near constant rumblings that Samsung could fork Android and simultaneously demolish Android's market share. We shouldn't worry about that for the time being though because Schmidt said the relationship between the pair was "very healthy". Schmidt said that he didn't see the relationship changing any time soon and he even went on to say how Samsung's partnership has helped to Google with their efforts and how he will "always appreciate their decision to go Android early on” because it has ultimately “helped to define Android.”
The final thing to note from today was that with the relatively recent acquisition of Motorola, Google will have a lot more influence in how the company's phones look, fell and perform and Schmidt also touched on the future devices. He said that we can expect Motorola's new devices to be "phones plus" (or should that be phones+?!) and the new devices will be 'phenomenal.'
Any one else excited for what's to come? And in case you were wondering no Andy didn't tell us what he's working on now!
Via Phandroid (1) and (2) and AndroidCommunity.
