On several occasions we mentioned that Google was not responsible for creating Android, in fact, when Andy Rubin created the operating system that today has more than 2.5 billion phones, this was not intended for phones, but for digital cameras.
What led Rubin and Google to radically change the path of Android was iOS and the iPhone. In fact, Tim Bray, who was one of the people close to Android, in the beginning, has told what was the reason why Google decided to change the direction of Android.
Google did not want an iPhone, he wanted Apple not to take the profits of his big business
Tim Bray began working at Sun Microsystems, the company responsible for Java, the most used programming language in the creation of Android applications. In fact, this company was bought by Oracle, which for years had legal fights with Google because the large G’s operating system uses Java code largely.
After his time at Oracle, Bray became part of the ranks of Google, where at that time he coincided with Vic Gundotra, who at the time was the head of Google+. Gundotra interviewed Bray in his hiring process, and during the job interview Bray asked Gundotra why Google was creating Android, as Bray even mentioned that Android looked like a project that could be forgotten, to which the executive of Google mentioned:
«The iPhone is a very good product. And it is likely that with this Apple will have a monopoly on mobile devices connected to the internet. It means that they will be the gatekeeper of everything, even the ads, so they can even set their own prices. This is an existential threat to us (Google). Android doesn’t have to win, it just has to get enough market for diversity and competitiveness ”
According to Gundotra, Google did not want Apple to take away part of the mobile advertising business with iOS, because advertising is just one of the main businesses of the Mountain View company.
In the end the story we already know, Android has a much larger market share than iOS, and it is Google that imposes “its prices” that Gundotra spoke at the time, because although Android is free for manufacturers, it does require pay a price, and is to install the applications and services that Google wants to be used on all their phones.