October 2003: Android founded in the U.S.
Android is co-founded by Andy Rubin, who went on to become a VP at Google, and has since left, along with Rich Milner. As uswitch.com notes in its history of Android, “Little is known about the company at the time, but rumors were afoot that it was working on a smartphone operating system. They werent wrong.”
August 2005: Android acquired by Google for “at least $50 million”
Google acquires Android for an undisclosed sum, estimated to be at least $50 million. The Android founders continue developing the new operating system, using Linux — the open-source software — as the basis for the Android.
January 2007: Apple launches iPhone
The release of Apples iPhone forces Android back to the drawing board as its founders did not foresee a full move to keyboard-less devices. Androids initial testing product was closer to that of BlackBerry.
September 2008: First Android smartphone announced
HTCs Dream goes on sale, catapulting the device maker into becoming one of the emerging smartphone market leaders, increasing the commercial appeal of Android OS.
August 2010: Oracle sues Google over claimed copyright infringements
Oracle Corporation, which has a long-standing beef with Google, sued the search giant over alleged copyright and patent infringements. Oracle originally sought damages up to $6.1 billion, later revised down to $1 billion. Oracle won, with the U.S. Supreme Court denying Googles appeal in June 2015.
Late 2010: Android becomes the worlds most popular smartphone operating system
Android becomes the worlds leading smartphone software, with over 33 million phones worldwide, according to Canalysis. Nokia is ranked second with 31 million. Android also outsells Apple iPhone and Blackberry RIMs by a factor of two.
April 2013: FairSearch files complaint with the European Commission
FairSearch, a lobby group supported by Microsoft, Nokia, Oracle and others, files a complaint with the European Commission accusing Android and Google of anti-competitive predatory pricing.
April 2015: Commission initiates proceedings against Google
The Commission opens formal proceedings against Google to investigate if Android breaches antitrust rules. The allegations focus on whether Google prevented manufacturers from developing and marketing modified and potentially competing versions of Android, and if Google hampered rivals by exclusively pre-installing its products bundling them on device makers phones.
April 20, 2016: Commission files statement of objections against Google
The Commission charges Google with breaching the antitrust rules by requiring manufacturers to pre-install Google products if they wanted access to the companys other apps. It also said Google required phone makers to set Google as the default search engine and provided them with financial incentives to do so.
August 2016: Russia fines Google $6.75 million
Russias Federal Antimonopoly Service fines Google $6.75 million dollars following similar allegations filed by Yandex, the Russian search engine and a rival to Google.
June 27, 2017: Commission fines Google a record €2.4 billion in Shopping case
The European Commission fines Google a record €2.4 billion for abusing a dominant position over internet search, saying the search engine favored some of its services over those of rivals. Google lodged an appeal in September 2017.
July 18, 2018: Google gets hit with €4.3 billion fine over Android mobile operating system: The European Commission fined Google for antitrust violations related to Android, its popular mobile operating system. It was the largest fine ever levied by the EU against an individual company.
