The Android lawn statues are a series of large foam statues near the Googleplex in Mountain View, California, currently located at 1981 Landings Drive. They are based on the code names for versions of Google's Androidmobile operating system, which are named after desserts and sweet treats. These statues were originally located in front of Building 44, where the Android development team had its offices, before being moved to their present location a few blocks away next to the GoogleVisitor Center Beta. The area is open to Google employees and their guests, and visitors are encouraged to take photos. The sculptures are mostly made by a company named Themendous.
Background
's Android is the fastest selling mobile operating system as of late 2010 and was developed as a partnership with the Open Handset Alliance, with version 1.0 being released on September 23, 2008. The first publicly codenamed version of Android was "Cupcake" which was released on April 27, 2009. Versions 1.0 and 1.1 did not have codenames following this scheme. There was initially a plan to use famous robot names in alphabetical order, and some early interim revisions have been tagged "Astro Boy" and "Bender". Eventually, this plan was discontinued, and version 1.0 did not have a codename, but version 1.1 got the internal codename "Petit Four", which launched the custom of naming Android releases after desserts. When codenames became public with version 1.5, they started to follow alphabetical order, beginning with "C". Since then, all further releases of Android were named after desserts or sweet treats, with names being chosen in alphabetical order, although sometimes the same name was applied to multiple versions. A few days before each named operating system is unveiled, Google unveils a lawn statue representing that version's codename. The statues were on the lawn in front of Building 44, where the Android development team worked until August 2014.
Statues
As of September 2019, seventeen statues comprise the collection. Each was created by Themendous, located in Union City, New Jersey. The statues in the order of installation are: The green Android was joined early on by Alex, a dog of similar colour and design. It was actually a toy chair Puppy by Eero Aarnio. This statue was stolen in 2009. A similar incident happened in 2012. Due to the summer heat, the head of the Jelly Bean statue popped off, and one of the jelly beans inside was stolen. This prompted Android engineer Dan Morrill to post on Google+, "Jelly Bean is so ridiculously hot that the JB statue overheated, and his head partially melted and popped off. And then we think somebody stole one of the jelly beans. People: please don't steal our jelly beans." The statue has since been repaired. In 2017, for the Android Oreo statue, Google ordered two different statues, with one of them featuring a single Oreo and a boxy design and the other with multiple Oreos and a more roundish shape.
