Ausdroid celebrates its 8th birthday today

It feels like only yesterday that Ausdroid was starting out, but that feeling is wrong. Ausdroid is, in fact, eight years old today, with our first post appearing on the 20th of March, 2010. In that eight years, we’ve seen a hell of a lot of changes, and here’s just a short list:

• Ausdroid’s team grew from one (Buzz), to two, and then up to almost a dozen at its highest, and back down to a steady number of (ironically) eight.
• Ausdroid went from being (literally) a hobby to being a (micro) small business.
• We went from begging for attention from manufacturers and other brands to having strong, robust relationships with all mobile manufacturers, carriers, and others in the personal technology space.
• We’ve gone from dreaming of attending Google I/O to regular attendance over the last three years, and we’ll be back this year, too.
• We’ve been at Mobile World Congress for the last four years, too. We’ve attended other major trade shows like CES and IFA, as well.
• As a team we’ve written some 17,000 articles covering all manner of topics from smartphones, mobile technology, laptops, gaming, apps, and more.

As with any team endeavour, things change over time. Some of us have had more time to write stories for you all, and others have had less. That availability has changed over time, because Ausdroid has never been a full-time job for any of us (though, to be fair, it has required many hours of work a week for many years to make it what it is today).

Many of Ausdroid’s writers today, though, have been with us since very early days. Dan, Jason and Phil were some very early invitees to join the Ausdroid team, followed closely by Scott. Duncan, Alex and Neerav are all relatively more recent team members, but their contributions are still valued, too.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one who has contributed to making Ausdroid great, and allowing me (and my team) to indulge in what is arguably one of the most enjoyable, addictive and rewarding hobbies out there. Tech journalism isn’t something anyone would do for money – because even those in salaried roles do it for love, not money.

We do it because we enjoy it, because we love breaking news and bringing it to you guys – our audience.

We love trying out new stuff, giving good and bad feedback to brands, and ultimately seeing that feedback taken on board to bring a better product to the customer. We’ve built ourselves a reputation as honest, genuine reviewers, both with our audience and also with major brands – when we give feedback, they listen, and when they can, they incorporate and improve.

Special mention needs to be made to our families, friends, partners and children. They put up with an awful lot – some might say too much – to allow us to pursue this endeavour. Overseas trips where partners are left with kids, working on stories when other things need to be done too, and helping us film, photograph and video our work. There’s the little things too, like signing for courier deliveries, checking the PO Box, and offering a critical eye for things that get missed.

Without them, this production simply wouldn’t exist.

So, to our families, our writing team, to our friends and partners in industry, and last (but not least) to our fabulous audience:

Thank you. We hope you’ll join us in the comments for a bit of a “celebration” as it were.

We’ve also got some swag to give away:

• A couple of large Android figurines and sticker sets, from MWC 2018.
• A 4,000 mAh Type C USB power bank, Android branded, of course.
• 3D Printed Android Oreo

Simply leave a comment, and we’ll pick some we like to receive some swag!