Witness the rise of Android [Infographic]

It’s been a magical ride for the Android operating system, as it wasn’t too long ago that analysts were insisting that Google was crazy to enter into this space. Now, Android has some incredible momentum in the market and the folks from Xcubelabs have put together a neat infographic about the rise of Android and its major accomplishments.

It starts out with the founding of Android by Andy Rubin, Rich Miner, Nick Sears and Chris White in October 2003. Those of you who follow these things closely will remember that early versions of Android looked very similar to the BlackBerry operating system. Once the iPhone came out and was a hit among the tech crowd, Android quickly changed its focus.

Google purchased Android in 2005 and rolled out the Open Handset Alliance and the Android beta SDK in November of 2007. It took nearly a year for Android to land in a handset, as the T-Mobile G1 landed in September 2008.

From those humble beginnings – one device, one carrier, near-zero market share – Android has rocketed to the top of the smartphone charts in terms of market share. With Cupcake, Donut, Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread and Honeycomb, the platform has gotten much better with each iteration and it has resonated with consumers, carriers and handset makers all over the world. Google recently said it is activating 550,000 Android handsets a day and look for that number to continue to rise.

Check out the infographic below and let us know what you think in the comments.

[Via Xcube]