The rise of Android: We chart the rise of Google's operating system, which had a little help from Oracle

4/8/21 7:00PM

Copy, paste, lawsuit

‍This week the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of Google in its 10-year legal battle against software giant Oracle, which had accused Google of copying around 12,000 lines of code during Google's development of Android — its mobile operating system software.

The code in question was from Oracle's Java application programming interface, and Oracle was hoping that it might be owed up to $9 billion in compensation, as Android went on to become the dominant operating system for mobile phones around the world. The Supreme Court saw things differently and ruled 6 to 2 that Google's use of the code counted as "fair use" under US copyright law.

The rise of Android

‍Back in 2009 making hardware (the smartphones themselves) was already enough of a challenge, and many manufacturers were loathe to either pay up for operating software, or invest a huge chunk of money in building their own. Google's master move was to make Android free and open source, allowing companies to build and customize on top of the Android OS, at no cost.

That model meant that, slowly but surely, pretty much every manufacturer except Apple abandoned their own operating systems in favor of Android, and at the latest count Android is the OS of choice for more than 70% of the mobile smartphone market according to data from StatCounter.

Android might be (mostly) free at the point of use, but it's a huge revenue generator for Google. The Google Play Store is the official app store for Android devices, and it's very likely a big chunk of the $21bn of revenue that Google reported as "other revenues" in 2020. On top of that you can add on all the revenue from Google Search, YouTube and other Google apps that usually come pre-loaded on Android devices.

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Amazon expands low-price Haul section to 14 new markets as Amazon Bazaar app

Amazon is expanding its low-cost Amazon Haul experience to a new stand-alone app called Amazon Bazaar.

Amazon launched its Temu and Shein competitor a year ago as a US mobile storefront on its website and has since expanded to about a dozen markets. Consumers could purchase many items for under $10, as long as they were willing to stomach longer delivery times.

Now, thanks to success in those places, the programming is expanding to 14 new markets — Hong Kong, the Philippines, Taiwan, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Peru, Ecuador, Argentina, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and Nigeria — with a new app and name: Amazon Bazaar.

“Both Amazon Haul and Amazon Bazaar deliver the same ultra low-price shopping experience, with different names chosen to better resonate with local language preferences and cultures,” the company said in a press release.

Amazon extends Haul’s ultra low-price shopping experience to 14 new destinations with new Amazon Bazaar app

Big Tech’s most important infrastructure is at the bottom of the sea

While data centers on land are getting all the attention, Big Tech’s vast network of undersea fiber-optic cables carry 99% of all international network traffic.

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After watching small drones reshape the battlefield in Ukraine, the US Army has announced plans to buy 1 million drones over the next two to three years, according to a report from Reuters.

The military threat of China’s dominance of the quadcopter-style drone industry is also driving the decision. But China’s control over much of the supply chain for drones, including rare earth magnets, sensors, and microcontrollers, will make it much harder for American drone manufacturers to catch up.

Rani Molla

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The wildest stuff Elon Musk said at Tesla’s shareholder meeting

Get ready to text and drive while the Optimus robot cures poverty.