http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Android#History
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Rubin

seems to cover the bases.

note however, that i was not aware of this history section until later.
instead i dug it out of news articles.

hell, now that im looking at it, the android development environment looks very similar to this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danger_...for_the_Hiptop

java with a special API, only software via the danger catalog (given the timeframe this seems to be a forerunner to the apple appstore). sounds strangely familiar.