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Over the years, as the smartphone industry has virtually exploded, Android has come about to be the undisputed champion of the arena, at least in terms of numbers. The co-creator of Android, Andy Rubin, has now revealed that the software was originally created to serve as a camera OS.

Rubin’s revelation is quite surprising since Android has turned out to be an excellent mobile OS over the years. Rubin stated that he started working on Android back in 2004 and pitched it as a camera OS to potential investors, even demonstrating the software as running atop a camera, which in turn was connected to a computer.

However, just when he was working on Android, the digital camera industry experienced a decline while the smartphone industry took the fast lane. It was then that Rubin’s company decided to change their orientation and reposition Android as a solution for mobile OS. Thus, what was originally a camera OS was renamed as an ‘open-source handset solution.’

Once the new business plan was in place, Rubin’s company brought on board people with expertise in the handset industry. According to Rubin, “We decided digital cameras wasn’t actually a big enough market. I was worried about Microsoft and I was worried about Symbian, I wasn’t worried about iPhone yet.”

Apple wasn’t a competitor in the smartphone market yet and debuted with its iPhone only in 2007. The most effective move that Rubin’s team made when launching Android was to hand out the OS for free, rather than charging the hefty amounts that other software vendors were charging for their own mobile solutions.

Rubin further stated, “We wanted as many cellphones to use Android as possible. So instead of charging $99, or $59, or $69, to Android, we gave it away for free, because we knew the industry was price sensitive.” It is no wonder that with such a timely and effective strategy, Android was able to take off and has emerged as the major player in the smartphone arena over the years.

Courtesy: PC World

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