The exact same platform, the exact same operating system we built for cameras, that became Android for cellphonesĪndroid kept its software core, including its Java core (Which was the cause of a large lawsuit with Oracle).

They promptly changed their business plan… and the pitch five months later declared it to be an “open-source handset solution.” The growth in digital cameras was gradually slowing as the technology became mainstream. I was worried about Microsoft and I was worried about Symbian, I wasn’t worried about iPhone yet.- Android co-founder Andy Rubin We decided digital cameras wasn’t actually a big enough market. Something all founders should take note of. This is a fab example of seeing where the real market opportunity is after starting and pivoting to a larger opportunity.

When Android started, the goal was to create a camera platform with a cloud portion for storing photos online, and for smart cameras to connect to PCs.Ī pitch to investors in April 2004 showed a camera connected “wired or wireless” to a home computer, which then linked to an “Android Datacenter.”Īs everyone knows, Android didn’t focus on the smart camera market, they pivoted to smartphones. The stories in text Android pivoted out of being an operating system for cameras

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