Five years ago today, a multinational alliance in favor of advancing open standards for mobile devices was formed (sounds like an epic movie, doesn’t it?). This alliance gave birth to the operating system we’ve come to love and advocate. It’s quite amazing to look back now and realize how visionary these companies were. They saw the tremendous growth of the mobile industry and where it was headed. They had enough forethought to realize a closed system would only hold back that growth. Releasing a gOS tied to a gPhone was not the answer… releasing Android was.

Android will accelerate the pace at which new and compelling mobile services are made available to consumers.

Through Android, developers, wireless operators and handset manufacturers will be better positioned to bring to market innovative new products faster and at a much lower cost.

The end result will be an unprecedented mobile platform that will enable wireless operators and manufacturers to give their customers better, more personal and more flexible mobile experiences.

Android holds the promise of unprecedented benefits for consumers, developers and manufacturers of mobile services and devices.

Handset manufacturers and wireless operators will be free to customize Android in order to bring to market innovative new products faster and at a much lower cost.

I’d say those quotes sound about right. In just five years, this open source nobody went from unknown to current worldwide market leader, capturing an astounding 75% of the market. How’s that for ambitious… huh Mr. Shmidt?!

Android is now half a billion device activations strong, with an insane 1.3 million activations per day! Almost every major smartphone manufacturer has dipped their fingers into the Android pot, some enjoying immense rewards, others… not so much.

Android has grown into an ecosystem supported by thousands of developers, hundreds of thousands of consumers, dozens of OEMs, carriers, supporters, bloggers, and crazy ol’ fanboys.

I can’t think of a better community to be a part of, and I’m thankful everyday for it. So here’s to you Android… here’s to you Open Handset Alliance. Cheers!