Happy birthday, Android! Although you were technically announced six years ago, it wasn't until October 22, 2008 that you made your debut. Apple tried stealing your thunder this year by hosting an event or something on your special day, so we decided to hold the celebration a day early in order to keep you in the limelight. You've had an interesting five years, and it's only right that we take the time to celebrate one of the most revolutionary things to happen to mobile. Android, this is your life.
First Android phone released (October 22, 2008)
The T-Mobile G1 (known overseas as the HTC Dream) is the first smartphone to ship with Android. Even though the phone was incredibly clunky, it was pretty well received overall and sold over a million units.
The T-Mobile G1 (HTC Dream)
Google announces Cupcake (April 30, 2009)
The first major update to the OS, Android 1.5 Cupcake starts the trend of naming Android updates after desserts and adds support for widgets, video uploads to YouTube, and a virtual on-screen keyboard.
Android fans resembled this dog when they heard the news.
Android Donut unveiled (September 15, 2009)
Android 1.6 Donut rolls out to the small handful of Android phones and brings with it support for more screen resolutions. The update also improves the camera and adds a speech-synthesis engine that lets Android "speak" simple lines of text.
ConversionConversion EmoticonEmoticon