Android is the most popular mobile operating system in the world, dominating the market with 70.85% while iOS is only 23.10%. Have you ever wondered how it arrived at today’s success?! I did. I read a lot and distilled a little history for you.

Android versions

Android was born on September 23, 2008, with its first official release. So on the next September 23rd say a little toast for Android while drinking a champaign.

The versions go through the ABC and for every one of them Google chooses a new delicious dessert as the name. Alpha and Beta wasn’t really released as serious Android OS so they don’t count.

Alpha had every Google-owned product functionality built in, like search, mail, calendar, map, web browser, even youtube had a place there. Way back then Google Play Store was called Android Market.

I like that name better, it tells you what it is. I’m not going to the Play Store to play. E.g our application is also not for playing but for serious business ;) and you can download it from the Play Store. The Android Market name would be better. It will also save us from Play Store vs App Store confusion.

Beta contained several bug fixes and some minor features.

Our marketing department once figured out a really good “What’s new” text for releases that contains only bug fixes: “Ironed out some wrinkles!” Isn’t it fabulous?!

Cupcake was the first release with a dessert name. Interesting features were copy paste in the browser, video recording, and uploading to youtube, animated screen transitions, auto-rotation, text predictions. Widgets were introduced with this version, I bet you can’t live without them.

As a székely, born and raised in Transilvania I don’t know the difference between cupcake and muffin. They look the same to me. Others say muffins can be savory while cupcakes can’t. And eating muffins for breakfast is accepted. I would love to do that but I’m sure my bodybuilder coach would kill me if I do.

Donut introduced the ability for developers to include their content in the search results. Let’s see the bright side, at least at the 4th release they made it. Other features were: support for WVGA resolution, ability to made the phone speak, select multiple photos for deletion.

Wait a moment, WVGA resolution? That is 800x480 pixels. That’s a bummer compared to my current phone that has 1440x2560 pixels. We really advanced our technology in the last couple of years.

The other thing is I’m a really bad photographer, but I like to capture memories. I make tons of pictures of which I only keep a few. If there were no multi-select for photos I would be still deleting the 2014s’ photos at this moment(in 2016) instead of writing this post.