Android’s introduction to the world a decade ago aboard a somewhat uninspiring HTC handset, was auspicious. Up until that unveiling one early fall afternoon in New York City, attended by Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and Android’s daddy Andy Rubin, we’d never seen the new, open, mobile operating system.

But, if I’m being honest, I didn’t think Android stood much of a chance, entering the domain of a surging Apple iPhone (then iPhone 3G) and the still dominant Blackberry (Bold).

I was worried that a third (or fourth if you counted Windows Mobile) mobile platform would lead to more consumer confusion and, possibly, less innovation as divided consumer interest left nascent app partners even more confused about where to put their development dollars (for a long time, most simply chose Apple and iOS).

Obviously, that’s not what happened. Android first survived and then ultimately thrived, despite itself.

In 2008, however, I was confronted with the anti-sexual a G1 handset. To be fair, it offered some real innovation. The compass app that let you turn the phone to virtually look around a Maps destination before you arrived (hey, this was really something in 2008) was a perfect showcase for both HTC and Google engineering. On-screen gestures like a long-hold for special actions and built-in haptics were smart precursors to our gesture-friendly-3D-touch-infused devices. Even the dedicated Google search button was a smart, forward looking feature that Google and partners abandoned in hardware, but would ultimately return as a permanent Google search bar on the home screen.

Still as a mobile OS, Android was in 2008 interesting, but not yet distinct. It had earmarks of both iOS elegance and Windows Mobile fussy, over-wrought clutter. It was the constant struggle between design and engineering made manifest.

The first Android smartphone was also an early example of an issue that would plague Android for device generations to come: the inability to control partner design choices. The HTC-built G1 had an awkward, asymmetrical design, an ugly, bulging “chin,” and hidden physical keyboard. The screen was roughly the same size and resolution as the iPhone 3G, but it was set in a phone that owed more to the texting-friendly T-Mobile Sidekick than the revolutionary, keyboard-free Apple iPhone.

Worse yet, it would be months before we saw another Android handset. For an open-system, the doors to development appeared partially closed. But then they did come, from LG and Samsung and, soon, many others.

Even with all that support, Android remained for years an over-developed, confusing mess. And partners took the open message literally, constantly altering the main interface with their own skins and core apps (some still do) so that the Android experience was wildly different across handset manufacturers. It honestly drove me insane.

Yet, Android survived, and it did so at the expense of other major players. RIM/Blackberry and Microsoft spent the next five years, immolating their own mobile businesses with a string of mind-bogglingly bad decisions and product missteps. My favorite RIM mistake will always be the BlackBerry Storm, a touchscreen handset that arrived just months after the G1. The entire screen was a button, I mean a physical button. You would press the whole thing to get stuff done. It was a disaster. The BlackBerry brand never really recovered from that ill-timed misstep and now all its phones are Android devices.

In the meantime, Microsoft took its worldwide leadership position in mobile handsets and dismantled it piece-by-piece with an impressively bad run of terrible and aborted mobile strategies. By the time it got its Windows Phone platform in shape, it was too late. To this day, we await a Surface Phone.

Android slowly, but quite surely filled the void created by Microsoft and Blackberry’s mobile collapse. As they stumbled, Google slowly built Android into a wonderful, smart, and, thank goodness, generally consistent experience across a wide-array of big-screen slabs. Today, Android dominates the global market through excellent programming, and almost unlimited options in design, price and performance.

Did I believe back on September 24, 2008, Android would ever be in this place? Honestly, no. But then what do I know?