Androids

The Team That Built the Android Operating System

by Chet Haase

June 2022, 416 pp

ISBN-13:

9781718502680

Download Chapter 4: THE PITCH

Look Inside!

In 2004, Android was two people who wanted to build camera software but couldn't get investors interested. Today, Android is a large team at Google, delivering an operating system (including camera software) to over 3 billion devices worldwide. This is the inside story, told by the people who made it happen.

Androids: The Team that Built the Android Operating System is a first-hand chronological account of how the startup began, how the team came together, and how they all built an operating system from the kernel level to its applications and everything in between. It describes the tenuous beginnings of this ambitious project as a tiny startup, then as a small acquisition by Google that took on an industry with strong, entrenched competition. Author Chet Haase joined the Android team at Google in May 2010 and later recorded conversations with team members to preserve the early days of Android's history leading to the launch of 1.0. This engaging and accessible book captures the developers' stories in their own voices to answer the question: How did Android succeed?

Author Bio

Chet Haase has spent many years working in high tech companies across Silicon Valley, usually on graphics software. He joined the Android team at Google in 2010, where he has written animation and UI software, led the UI toolkit team, served as Android's Chief Advocate in developer relations, and is now an engineer in the graphics team. He writes books and articles, creates videos and gives presentations, either humorous or technical (often both). This is Chet's sixth book. His other books include two programming books, two humor books, and one slim volume of poetry about donuts.

Table of contents

PART ONE: IN THE BEGINNING
1. Android the . . . Camera OS?
2. The Farm Team
3. Growing the Team
4. The Pitch
5. The Acquisition
6. Life at Google
PART TWO: BUILDING THE PLATFORM
7. The Systems Team
8. Java
9. Core Libraries
10. Infrastructure
11. Graphics
12. Media
13. Framework
14. UI Toolkit
15. System UI & Launcher
16. Design
17. The Android Browser
18. London Calling
19. Applications
20. Android Services
21. Location, Location, Location
22. Android Market
23. Communications
24. Developer Tools
25. Lean Code
26. Open Source
27. Managing All the Things
28. Deals
29. Product vs. Platform
PART THREE: THE ANDROID TEAM
30. Android != Google
31. The Wild West
32. Fun with Hardware
33. Fun with Robots
34. Work Harder, Not Smarter
35. Bacon Sundays
36. Postcards from Barcelona
PART FOUR: LAUNCHES
37. Competition
38. Meanwhile, in Cupertino . . .
39. The SDK Launch
40. The Run Up to 1.0
41. 1.0 Launch
42. G1 Reception
43. Just Desserts
44. The Early Devices
45. Droid Did
46. Samsung and More
47. The Hockey Stick
PART FIVE: WHY IT WORKED
48. The Team
49. Decisions, Decisions
50. Timing
51. Success! We’re Still Here!
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
APPENDICES
A. Jargon
B. Related Content
INDEX

Reviews

"Well-written [with] humorous and clever narration . . . highly recommended . . . a must-read book for every developer."
—Joseph Henry, Tech Times

"A great book for anyone that is currently a software engineer or is thinking of becoming one. . . For the candid insights it gives into the development of a real piece of significant software, this book would be an excellent supplementary text for a university software engineering or operating systems course."
—Gary W. Meyer, retired Associate Professor of Computer Science at the University of Minnesota

"I highly recommend reading it in order to understand [the] ecosystem of the mobile technology before iPhone and later Android appeared."
—@Farenain

"A great read on operating systems, teams and life inside Google."
—Tom Karlo, @tkarlo, Product Manager at Meta Reality Labs

Extra Stuff

Check out Chet's appearance on the CoRecursive podcast.