Google created the Android operating system after acquiring Android Inc. in 2005.
Android Inc. was founded in 2003 by Andy Rubin, Rich Miner, Nick Sears, and Chris White. Google acquired the startup in 2005, bringing Rubin and the Android team into the company. Android was developed as a mobile operating system for touchscreen devices and other hardware.
The first commercially available Android phone was the HTC Dream, also sold as the T-Mobile G1, released in 2008. Android later became the most widely deployed mobile operating system by device shipments, powering phones made by many manufacturers.
Google is the principal company behind Android, but the system is based on the Android Open Source Project and is used by numerous hardware makers. That makes Android different from Apple's iOS, which Apple develops for its own device ecosystem.