IN DEPTH
Background
In 2005, Google acquired Android and began the creation of its now-famous Android software platform for mobile devices. Google’s plan was to make Android a free and open platform, enabling software developers to build upon it for their respective mobile applications.
Sun Microsystems was the original inventor of the Java programming language and Oracle’s predecessor. At the time of Google’s acquisition of Android, many software developers understood and wrote programs using the Java language, with many of those developers using the Sun Java SE platform to write interoperable programs for desktop or laptop computers.
With its goal of developing the Android platform for mobile devices, Google began talks with Sun about the possibility of licensing the entire Java platform. However, the parties’ views regarding Google’s desired free and open-source nature of the Android platform were not compatible. The negotiations fell apart, leaving Google to build its platform, tailored to smartphone technology, on its own.