Android Inc. created the Android operating system and was acquired by Google in 2005.
Android Inc. was founded in 2003 by Andy Rubin, Rich Miner, Nick Sears, and Chris White. The original project was intended to develop an operating system for digital cameras, but the company shifted its focus toward smartphones as that market developed.
Google acquired Android Inc. in 2005. Rubin and much of his team joined Google, where Android was developed into an open-source mobile operating system. The first commercial Android phone, the HTC Dream, went on sale in 2008.
Android is now a major Google platform, but the company acquired the startup rather than inventing the project from nothing. Android also differs from Google’s separate ChromeOS product. Because Android Inc. was private before the acquisition, it did not have an independent public market capitalization; its importance here is as a strategic asset behind Google’s broader value.