Do you know why the Android operating system is called that?

The operating system developed by Google is one of the most popular platforms for mobile devices in the world. And because the word Android is now at the hearing of hundreds of millions of users. But not everyone knows how this name arose and what meaning it carries.

In fact, this operating system was not created by Good Corporation. This is the brainchild of Android Inc., which was founded in California in 2003, five years before the first Android smartphone was released. Its founders were Andy Rubin, Rich Miner, Nick Sears and Chris White.

Android was originally conceived as an operating system for... digital cameras.

The fact that soon these cameras will become a toy for photo fans, and all the rest will switch to smartphones en masse, in Android Inc. did not think at first. However, plans soon changed.

The founders of the company realized that Android had great potential to compete with the then leading mobile operating systems - Windows Mobile and Symbian. In 2005, Andy Rubin tried to negotiate a partnership with Samsung and HTC, but was unsuccessful.

And in July 2005 happened historic deal - Google acquired Android Inc. for 50 million dollars. Its founders also moved to the new company, and Rubin became leader commands.

In 2007, Apple released the iPhone, which radically changed the mobile phone market. Google, in turn, created the first Android device, the T‑Mobile G1, in 2008. It also had a physical keyboard and trackball.

In addition, Google began offering the operating system to phone manufacturers and carriers. The huge advantage of Android was its open source code and the possibility of flexible customization for any device - which led to the popularity of this operating system.

But why is Android Android? And all thanks to its creator Rubin.

The word itself existed long before the advent of the operating system. Its history was traced by the creators of the Oxford English Dictionary: the first mention of androids contained in Ephraim Chambers' 1728 Cyclopedia. There, it refers to a humanoid mechanism, which, presumably, was created by St. Albert the Great back in the 12th century.

In the United States, at least since 1863, androids have been called miniature humanoid clockwork toys. And later the term migrated to science fiction and began to be used to refer to robotssimilar to people.

Andy Rubin was an avid fan of robotics. At the age of 15 he even hacked and programmed the R2-D2 toy droid to drive up to his brother and play a prank on him. Later, before creating Android Inc and joining Google, Andy worked at Apple from 1989 to 1992. And there Andy was nicknamed the android because of his passion.

Rubin took the nickname with pleasure, because it also harmonized well with his name - Andy. He even registered take over the domain android.com, and this address was his personal website until 2008. Then there was information about his system, which Rubin, as the lead developer, also dubbed Android.

It's funny that Apple indirectly contributed to the emergence of this brand - more precisely, its employees with their craving for giving out witty nicknames. Rubin no longer works there or at Google, but the name given to him once as a joke has become a brand.

By the way, the green robot, the logo of the system, is called Bugdroid. And maybe it's a joke reference to the fact that Android has a lot of bugs.