Google acquired Android in 2005, when it was still just a small, twenty-two-month-old start-up that was working on a new operating system for mobile phones. Google let Android founder Andy Rubin hire additional engineers to complete the product, while using its market power and reputation to establish the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium to promote Android that included hardware makers Samsung, HTC, and Motorola, carriers Sprint and T-Mobile, and chipmakers Qualcomm and Texas Instruments. With this backing,
