Here are key dates and figures behind Alphabet-owned Google's Android operating software, a computing phenomenon that runs the vast majority of smartphones sold across the world.
The number of smartphones shipped in 2015 that are powered by Android, according to research group Gartner. That accounts for 82 per cent of the market, dwarfing the 225.85 million for Apple's iOS.
The number of smartphones expected to be shipped in 2017 with Android operating software, according to Gartner predictions. That would be 84 per cent of the world market.
Revenue in 2015 for Google parent Alphabet. The same year, Alphabet posted a net profit of $15.8 billion.
The year Google quietly purchases Android Inc., a start-up company co-founded two years earlier by former Apple engineer Andy Rubin to write software for mobile phones. "We are thrilled to have them here," a Google spokesman told BusinessWeek Online at the time.
The year the first Android mobile operating system, version 1.0, hit the market. Even this first commercial issue had many of the Google features now familiar to billions of users: a market place to buy apps, contacts, calendar, maps and search.
The year of Cupcake, the first version of the operating software to carry the name of an enticing desert. It was to be followed by Donut, Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich, Jelly Bean, KitKat, Lollipop and, the latest offering, Marshmallow.
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