"Google's best purchase" has now come of age

BarcelonaLast Wednesday marked the eighteenth anniversary of the Open Handset Alliance's announcement: on November 5, 2007, 34 mobile carriers, phone manufacturers, and chipmakers committed to adopting Android, "the first fully open platform for mobile devices." release It didn't explain that Android had existed since 2003—initially designed for digital cameras, not phones—nor that Google had bought it in 2005 for around $50 million, which then-Vice President David Lawee would later call "Google's best purchase." It also failed to mention that the announcement came 10 months after Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone.

The first Android phone, the HTC Dream (or T-Mobile G1), wouldn't arrive until October 2008, almost a year after the announcement. Meanwhile, at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February 2008—then still 3GSM—the actual agreements for the alliance were signed, and we saw partially functional prototypes: Gmail and Google Maps, and YouTube—just the icon.

The evolution of a giant with dessert-like names

In eighteen years, Android has gone from being an experimental system to dominating three out of every four phones on the planet. The numbers speak for themselves: 3.6 billion active users, 72.55% global market share projected for 2025, and 2.06 million apps on the Google Play Store.

From Android 1.0 in 2008 to Android 16 this year, Google has implemented a huge number of changes: true multitasking (2011), Material Design (2014), runtime permissions (2015), file-level encryption (2016, 2019)...

Google adopted a curious tradition: naming each version with names of sweets in alphabetical orderCupcake (1.5, 2009) brought the first virtual keyboard, Gingerbread (2.3) dominated for years, and the qualitative leap came with Lollipop (5.0, 2014) and Material Design, the visual language based on cards and vibrant colors that still defines the system's appearance today. Finally, Google abandoned dessert-themed public names: Android 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16 use numbers, although internally they still have sweet surnames and have already reversed the alphabet: the current Android 16 is called Baklava.

Beyond phones, Android has colonized tablets, televisions (270 million devices with Android TV in 2024), smartwatches (Wear OS has gone from 4% to 27% market share thanks to Samsung), and cars (Android Automotive OS is integrated into Volvo, Volvo, and Ford).

The challenge of fragmentation

One of the most significant differences between Android and Apple's iOS is system fragmentation. While 47% of iPhone users update to the new operating system version within weeks of its release, currently only a quarter of Android devices run the latest version. This means there are millions of phones running Android versions that are two, three, or even five years old, each with different capabilities.

For app developers, this represents a considerable headache: they must design and test their apps to work on dozens of different Android versions, with disparate screen configurations, diverse processors, and manufacturers modifying the system with their own custom interfaces. Fragmentation also complicates security updates and the adoption of new features. Google has tried to mitigate the problem, but the truth is that the diversity of the Android market makes it impossible to replicate the uniformity of Apple's ecosystem.

The Two Faces of Android

Furthermore, there are actually two Android systems: AOSP (Android Open Source Project) and the "Android" that most users are familiar with. AOSP is the open-source code that can be freely downloaded and compiled. The problem? Without Google Play Mobile Services (GMS), it's limited: it doesn't include an app store or notifications. pushnor reliable location services.

On this open-source foundation, Google has built its control system. Phone manufacturers must sign the Mobile Application Distribution Agreement (MADA) and undergo months of approvals. They must pre-install Chrome, Gmail, Google Maps, and YouTube in prominent positions, and Google as the default search engine. In return, they gain access to GMS, without which many popular apps do not function correctly.

Google does not charge a license fee for Android (except in Europe, since the 2018 fine), but it profits from the 15-30% commission it charges on the Play Store, from advertising, and from user data. Furthermore, in March it was revealed that Google will move all Android development to private internal branches, which will limit the transparency of the AOSP development process.

Beyond Google

There are Android variants that attempt to regain autonomy. LineageOS, successor to CyanogenMod, has 4.5 million active users and is compatible with 196 phone models, extending their lifespan beyond what manufacturers consider profitable. /e/OS, created by the founder of Mandrake Linux, completely eliminates Google services and offers its own cloud alternative. GrapheneOS is another privacy-focused option, although limited to Google's Pixel phones, which have a negligible presence in the market: ironically, to escape the control of the digital giant, you need to buy one of their phones.

China is a world apart. MIUI (Xiaomi), ColorOS (Oppo), EMUI (Huawei), and FlymeOS (Meizu) are AOSP variants that have grown in a market where Google hasn't been present since 2010. With a 76% total market share in China, but 0% Google services, these versions are search engines. Following the US ban in 2019, Huawei even created HarmonyOS Next: an independent system with a 17% market share in China and its own kernel that no longer derives from AOSP.

Eighteen years later: nuanced success

Android has achieved something extraordinary: being simultaneously the most widely used and most fragmented operating system in the world, the most "open" in terms of code and the most integrated into a single company's ecosystem of services. The 3.6 billion people who use it enjoy a powerful, flexible system present on devices at all price points, from under €100 to ultra-premium models costing over €2,000.

From the announcement of the Open Handset Alliance on November 5, 2007, to the 270 million Android TVs in 2024, the trajectory has been clear: Google has conquered the mobile market without selling directly. Every Samsung, Xiaomi, or OnePlus device sold puts the Google ecosystem in users' pockets. What began as an industry panic reaction to the iPhone has become the operating system that defines the mobile experience for three out of every four connected people.

The question is whether this model—open source, but closed services; diverse manufacturers, but centralized ecosystem control—is truly the best of both worlds or simply a new form of monopoly with excellent marketing. Eighteen years later, Android remains contradictory: free and controlled at the same time; democratic in access, but an oligopoly in practice; open in its code, but closed where it really matters.