Google’s Play Store celebrates its Sweet Sixteen
 

• The Android Market debuted on this date all the way back in 2008.
• A little over three years later, the Market would pick up the Play Store name we still use today.

Google nearly just found itself forced to implement some major changes to the way it runs the Play Store, stemming from the fallout of the legal case Epic Games brought against the company. Ultimately, Google convinced a judge to press “pause” on what would have been the most impactful components of the court order, but all this has gotten us thinking about what an institution the Play Store has established itself as, and how it really does feel like any major changes there would be like shaking up Android, close to its core. Well, there’s good reason that Google’s Android app store feels so important to us, as today marks sixteen years that we’ve had it around.

It was back in August 2008 that Google first announced the Android Market. Apple’s App Store for iPhones had opened earlier that summer, and Google needed to step up with a solution of its own for Android software discovery and distribution. The company invited developers to sign on as merchants, and a few months later, on October 22, 2008, the Android Market finally opened for business.




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