I was surfing through some old article and came across an article from 2006 with nice list of many of the domains owned by Google. Surprisingly one of the names in the list from back then was Android.com. One reader actually pointed it out saying this.
Little did Mr. Chanpory realize what he had pointed out. I do believe he was the first person in the world to call out the name of the new Google Phone and he wasn’t too far off from what it would do (the make toast app coming out next year). In 2006 nobody seemed to realize or even care that the word Android was a word that was completely made up by George Lucas for Star Wars and he owned the trademark for both “android” and “droid”. Nor was a word ever spoken about a Google Phone. It’s hard to tell if Google had already reached an agreement with Lucas at that point but from what I can find, the phone idea wasn’t even being thrown around by Google until December of 2006. I also find it hard to believe that Google planned all along to call it the “Droid” but they DID already have the name.
So what’s your thoughts? You think they named the phone because they already had the name or do you think they had planned to call it Android all along?
Android was originally a company that made software for cell phones. They were acquired by Google in July 2005.
While George Lucas might have come up with the short form “droid”, he certainly did not have anything to do with the word “android”.
The perhaps most known earlier use was Philip K. Dick in his 1968 novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” (which in turn was the base for the Bladerunner movie), but the word itself is much older that that – see for details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_(robot)#Etymology
//Dave
Time for some Greek 101.
The ancient Greek word “ανήρ” means “man”. Its genitive form “ανδρός” means “of the man”. It’s an irregular noun but that’s where the “andro” part comes from.
Now for the suffix, “-id”. It’s from the Greek “είδος” (eidos) which means “species” and “look like”. In other words, Android means “man-like being”.
Now, if only I hadn’t sold android.org way back when….