The Unveiling of Android 1.0
A convoy of cars sped along South Las Vegas Boulevard, cutting north to south through Las Vegas, Nevada. Just as the city itself dazzled with its neon spectacle, the vehicles on the road were a parade of foreign luxury models rarely seen elsewhere. In a playground for the wealthy, even exotic cars blended into the scenery. Yet one procession stood out unmistakably: a line of Rolls-Royces. Leading the way was a Corniche, the grand coupe originally built as a ceremonial vehicle for the British queen and offered to the public from the 1970s onward. It was followed by two Phantom VI limousines, Rolls-Royce’s flagship sedans, flanked front and rear by Jeep Wranglers acting as escorts.
These vehicles belonged to Yoo Jae-won of ID Group, the man orchestrating today’s largest event in Las Vegas. Jae-won rode in the Corniche, while his parents and senior executives occupied the Phantoms. The cars had been discovered during due diligence after the Microsoft acquisition; Bill Gates had purchased them under the corporate name less than two years earlier. They had seen little use until now, when the occasion finally justified bringing them out.
Their destination was the Las Vegas Convention Center.
“Las Vegas feels like ID Group’s own family city,” Kim Dae-seok remarked from behind the wheel of the Corniche.
“I’m glad it looks that way even to you, Secretary Kim.”
Jae-won sat beside him. By strict protocol, the central Phantom would have been the appropriate seat for the group’s chairman. But Jae-won had never cared for rigid ceremony or hierarchy. The two-seater Corniche appealed to him far more than the austere Phantom. Though security concerns kept the roof closed, the car still offered a far more enjoyable drive. What pleased him most were the ID Group and Android banners hanging from every lamppost. The streets looked, as Kim Dae-seok had said, as though Las Vegas itself had been built by ID Group.
All of it had cost money. Negotiations with the city had reduced the price, yet the expense remained substantial. Thousands of large banners had to be printed and installed by hand. In return, the impact was immediate. Anyone arriving in Las Vegas today would instantly recognize that ID Group was staging something monumental. The banners were not limited to Las Vegas; flagship stores in other cities displayed them at comparable scale. Even the massive billboards lining both sides of South Las Vegas Boulevard and selected hotels carried ten-meter banners. Normally these billboards were divided among multiple advertisers, but ID Group had purchased them outright. With a global marketing budget exceeding tens of millions of dollars, such saturation was feasible. Even ordinary citizens unfamiliar with computers would find the ID logo burned into memory.
Family city.
The phrase lingered pleasantly with Jae-won. Should ID Group grow far larger than it already was, the headquarters workforce alone would easily surpass ten thousand. Adding future research facilities would transform the site from a village into a city. One day, an ID Group city would rise. To hasten that day, today’s event was critical.
Android 1.0. It would either accelerate the already growing ID Group or plunge it into the mire. A pivotal moment.
It has to succeed.
They had prepared with exhaustive care, yet market success could never be guaranteed. Unforeseen factors could elevate or destroy a product; such was the nature of society. Still, Jae-won and ID Group had brought every resource they possessed to bear on Android 1.0. Nothing had been overlooked. There would be no room for regret afterward. Everything now rested with fate.
“We’ve arrived.”
Jae-won’s parents stepped out of their Phantom and let out soft exclamations of wonder. The entire Las Vegas Convention Center had been transformed into an ID Group showcase. A colossal ID logo dominated the entrance, while a ten-meter banner displayed the Android operating system’s robotic mascot. Inside, hundreds of computers had been installed, allowing visitors to try every piece of software ID Technology had released. All were brand-new units straight from their boxes—Egg PCs. Though not the highest specification, they were still more expensive than standard machines. Sambo had covered half the cost; ID Group had covered the rest. Once the event concluded, the computers would be donated to schools across Nevada, a gesture that had already drawn favorable attention.
Hardware partners closely aligned with ID Group also occupied space, showcasing their own products. Because ID Group had rented the entire convention center, these partners incurred no separate venue fees. The arrangement had drawn far more participants than originally planned, making the gathering resemble a Comdex that had opened ahead of schedule.
“Please look around until the presentation begins,” Jae-won told his parents. Two hours remained before the main event. With nothing else to occupy them, they set off to explore while Jae-won headed to the main stage for final checks.
Time passed quickly.
“Chairman, you’re up.”
“Already?”
He had inspected the demonstration computers, refined the presentation script once more, and reviewed his movements onstage. The moment had come.
“Let’s go.”
Jae-won followed Kim Dae-seok. As they neared the main stage, the nervous excitement he had not felt during rehearsals grew stronger. The low murmur of thousands of attendees, previously unnoticed, now reached him clearly.
—We now welcome to the stage ID Group’s chairman and the developer of Android, Mr. Yoo Jae-won.
The announcer’s polished voice carried from beyond the curtain. The stage director counted three seconds with hand signals, then swept the curtain open.
The selection of the announcer, the stage setup, lighting control, camera operation, and real-time editing of the main screen—all of it lay far outside ID Group’s own capabilities. A major Las Vegas event-production company had therefore been commissioned. Thanks to their expertise, the program flowed smoothly. Their skilled staff warmed up the audience first, building anticipation to its peak before Jae-won stepped alone onto the main stage.
He wore pure casual attire: jeans, a checkered shirt layered with a sky-blue sweater. Nothing stiff or formal about him. The outfit embodied the approachable spirit of the Android operating system itself. In Silicon Valley such clothing was everyday wear, so most attendees thought nothing of it. Those who recognized the shared sensibility greeted him with enthusiastic applause.
“Hello!”
Accepting the applause, Jae-won opened with a greeting in his native Korean. He did not continue the presentation in Korean, however. The majority of the audience were American, so he switched immediately to English and, with practiced ease, began the historic first announcement of Android.
“Today is the day I have been counting toward for two years. The day I finally present what all of you have been waiting for.”
As soon as he spoke, the enormous projection screen behind him changed. The black display gave way to a large, animated ID logo that sparkled under intense light—simple, yet brimming with sophistication.
“From time to time, a groundbreaking, innovative product appears and changes our lives. Anyone who creates even one such product is truly fortunate. It seems I have been one of the lucky ones.”
The screen shifted to show Android Alpha, followed by ID Office, Keyboard Warrior, Wolfenstein, and Doom. An Egg PC appeared as well.
“ID Group has brought not one but several such innovations to the world. Each was crafted with our utmost effort.”
After his regression, he had created Keyboard Warrior using BASIC, then quickly released an improved version written in C that added graphics. The memory remained vivid. The response had exceeded every expectation, and that momentum had carried ID Group to its present stature.
“Looking back, I sometimes wonder if we could have made them even better,” Jae-won admitted, a remark that would have made his developers clutch their heads.
The hardware-scrolling technique first demonstrated in the C-language version of Keyboard Warrior was still praised among developers. Earlier games had displayed awkward movement; Keyboard Warrior delivered the fluid motion of a video game. The technique had since become standard, a fundamental skill every aspiring game developer had to master. Yet Jae-won’s sentiment was sincere. A sequel to Keyboard Warrior would be released once technology advanced further.
“What I regret most, however, is Android Alpha.”
His narrative moved directly to Android Alpha. The screen displayed its famous desktop: the background image of the mountains behind Naeo Village in Deokjin-ri, the ribbon interface with its start button and taskbar, and the shortcut icons for various programs.
“The interface was revolutionary, but because it was built on DOS, its stability left much to be desired.”
The screen illustrated the problems with humorous animations of the Android mascot robot: games freezing, cryptic errors appearing, the computer slowing until a reboot became necessary.
“PC users, every time you must reboot because of a fatal error! Every time a sudden freeze destroys the report or document you have been writing, haven’t you asked yourselves: Why can’t a PC enjoy the same stability as a workstation or mainframe?”
The question drew a fervent response from the audience. After all, few people had never lost work on a PC because of a crash.