Android 1.0 was developed by Google and the Open Handset Alliance (OHA), a consortium of technology companies including HTC, Intel, and Qualcomm. The OHA aimed to create an open-source mobile platform that would challenge the dominance of proprietary operating systems like Symbian and Windows Mobile. Android 1.0 was built on top of a Linux kernel and was designed to be highly customizable, allowing device manufacturers to modify and extend the platform to suit their needs.