29 Product vs. Platform
That’s why it’s called ANDroid not ORdroid. Because if we are deciding between two alternatives, we always pick both.
—Team Saying (Anonymous)
One of the ongoing debates on the team in those early times (and for years afterward) was: were they building a product or a platform? That is, were they trying to build one or more phones (products), or an operating system that would be usable across many different phones, from various manufacturers, now and in the future (a platform)?
It is clear now, especially given the breadth of the Android ecosystem, that Android is a platform. Yes, it runs on Google’s phones, including generations of Nexus phones and the more recent Pixel phones. It also runs on many more phones across ...
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