Exploratory study of corporate contributions in Android development through repository analysis
Sergio Raul Montes León, Antonio J. Romero-Barrera, David Moreno-Lumbreras, Hernan Montes-Leon · Journal of Systems and Software · 2026
Android has become the dominant mobile operating system worldwide, supported by a vast ecosystem of developers and organizations. While Google initiated and continues to maintain the project, its growth has relied on contributions from a wide range of technology companies and independent developers. Understanding the extent and nature of these corporate contributions is essential to assessing the dynamics, influence, and sustainability of the Android ecosystem. This paper presents an updated exploratory study of company participation in Android development, focusing on the distribution of contributions across the kernel, platform, and device modules. We analyze over 3.6 million commits from the official Android repositories, spanning the period from 2005 to April 2026. Our methodology combines automated data extraction and normalization, company identification through email domains, and longitudinal analysis of participation trends. The results show that independent contributors and small-sized companies now lead kernel development, accounting for nearly 70% of kernel commits. At the same time, Google dominates the platform and device layers with shares exceeding 90% and 98%, respectively. In the most recent data (up to April 2026), independent developers are responsible for 61.5% of new commits, with Google holding 16.8%. Other companies, such as Intel, Red Hat, and AMD, maintain a presence but with smaller shares, and most traditional hardware vendors now play only a minor role in the official repositories.