While not immediately, ultimately Android was very explicitly a hedge against Apple, not Microsoft. Seems this became clear at Google near instantly after the i

While not immediately, ultimately Android was very explicitly a hedge against Apple, not Microsoft. Seems this became clear at Google near instantly after the iPhone announcement. Google actively shifted it's Android development toward touch screens directly as a result of the iPhone, for instance. By the 2010 Google IO keynote they made this explicit with Vic Gundottra's speech describing the mission of Android according to Andy Rubin (it's original creator): "If Google did not act, we faced a draconian future. A future where one man, one company, one device, one carrier would be our only choice. That's a future we don't want." This was a reference to Steve Jobs, Apple, iPhone and AT&T (originally Cingular). https://youtu.be/89xc_1Vv69k?si=1HkgjXT6P0ScuBZG https://youtu.be/89xc_1Vv69k?si=1HkgjXT6P0ScuBZG