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Android

2008 → today · Phones

An open-source, Linux-based system for mobile devices.1, 6 The year marks its first phone: the T-Mobile G1, on sale in the US on 22 October 2008.3

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Announced
5 November 20071
First phone
T-Mobile G1, on sale 22 October 2008 (US)3
G1 screen
3.2-inch touch screen, 320 × 480 pixels4
Built on
The Linux kernel6

An open platform for phones

On 5 November 2007, Google, T-Mobile, HTC, Qualcomm, Motorola and others announced Android. Thirty-four companies formed the Open Handset Alliance to build it. Android would be a complete "software stack": an operating system, middleware, a user interface and apps. It would come under an open-source license, so phone makers and mobile operators could customize it.1

An Android home screen, wider than it is tall: a photo of a rainbow over a waterfall, a search bar at the top, shortcuts named Messaging, Dialer, Contacts and Browser, and an orange tab with an arrow on the right edge. The status bar shows the time 1:06 AM.
Android 1.6 from 2009, running on Android-x86 in our virtual PC. You can try it in the lesson.

The first Android phone

T-Mobile unveiled the first Android phone, the T-Mobile G1, in September 2008. Its touch screen slid open to reveal a full keyboard, and it had a trackball too.2 The Android 1.0 developer kit came out the same month.5 The G1 went on sale in the US on 22 October for $179 with a two-year contract.2, 3

A phone screen with a plain blue background. A light gray status bar at the top shows, on the right, 3G, signal bars, a green battery and the time 11:41 AM. A round analog clock sits at the upper right. Near the bottom are four shortcuts labeled Dialer, Contacts, Browser and Maps, and below them a gray tab with an up arrow.
Illustration · not a screenshot Our drawing of the T-Mobile G1's home screen in 2008, after a photo of the real phone. The wallpaper and the shortcut symbols are our own. See the real screen

Apps from the Market

The G1 was the first phone with Android Market, where you could download apps from developers around the world.2 On 21 October 2008, the day before the G1 went on sale, Google and its partners released Android's source code.7 As of November 2026, Google's developer pages call Android an open source, Linux-based software stack.6

Android's list of apps on a dark background: Alarm Clock, App Store, Browser, Calendar, Camcorder, Camera, ConnectBot, Contacts, Dev Tools, Dialer, Email, Gallery, Global Time, JetBoy, LIME, Lunar Lander, Messaging, Music, Note pad, OI File Manager, RockOn, RSS Reader, Settings, Snake on a Phone, Spare Parts and Videos.
The app list of Android 1.6 in our virtual PC. This CD has no Google apps, so there is no Market.

Key moments