Understanding Android - Practical Mobile Forensics - page 202

Chapter 7. Understanding Android

Before we take a dive into the ocean of Android let us first spend some time discussing the
evolution of Android or what we call The Android Story . Back in 2005, Google started
investing money in start-up companies, which it thought would be profitable in the future.
Android Inc., founded in 2003 by Andy Rubin, Rich Miner, Nick Sears, and Chris White,
was one such company acquired by Google that later turned out to be the best deal ever.
During its first two years, Android Inc. operated under secrecy. It described itself as a com-
pany "making software for mobile phones". Rubin later stayed with Google to pioneer
Android as an operating system that revolutionized the way mobile handsets operate. With
this acquisition it was clear that Google was eyeing the mobile phone market. At Google,
Rubin, along with his team, developed a powerful and flexible operating system built on a
Linux kernel. There were speculations all over about what Google was trying to do. Some
reported that Google was trying to incorporate search and other applications into mobile
handsets. A few others reported that Google was developing its own mobile handset. Fin-
ally in 2007, Open Handset Alliance ( OHA ), a group of technology companies, device
manufacturers, chipset makers, and wireless carriers, was formed with the main objective
of proposing open standards for the mobile platform. Together they developed Android ,
the first open and free mobile platform built on Linux kernel 2.6. Later in 2008, HTC
Dream was released which was the first phone to run the Android operating system. After
that, it was a dream run for Android, with its market share increasing exponentially over
the next few years. A breakdown on the history of Android can be found at ht-
tp://www.xcubelabs.com/the-android-story.php . Several versions of its Linux-based operat-
ing system have been released in alphabetical order.

The version history of Android can be found at http://faqoid.com/advisor/android-ver-
sions.php , an overview of which is shown in the following table:

Version Version name Release year

Android 1.0 Apple pie 2008

Android 1.1 Banana bread 2009

Android 1.5 Cupcake 2009

Android 1.6 Donut 2009