Direct answer: Credit belongs to the original startup team–Andy Rubin, Rich Miner, Nick Sears and Chris White–who founded the project in October 2003; Google acquired the company on August 17, 2005, and that acquisition set the path to the first commercial handset, the HTC Dream (T‑Mobile G1), which shipped on October 22, 2008. For a factual chronology and accurate attribution, include these milestones in sequence: founding of the startup (Oct 2003); Google purchase (Aug 2005); announcement of ...