Android OS powers more than just smartphones. Today, it sits at the heart of devices across industries—from medical systems to fitness equipment, from payment terminals to in-vehicle infotainment. High flexibility of the OS helped Android becoming a natural choice for companies building new digital products.
But behind that flexibility lies complexity. Understanding this complexity early can save months—sometimes years—of costly detours.
At the foundation of every Android device is the Android Open Source Project (AOSP)—the public version of Android maintained by Google and a global consortium of companies. The AOSP is the raw blueprint of Android. It provides everything needed to build a device, but it is not ready to use out-of-the-box for new devices.
AOSP is not a product. It’s a starting point.
Turning it into a working device often requires deep customization, integration with hardware, and ongoing maintenance. This is where many product initiatives underestimate the effort involved.
Unlike web or mobile apps, building an Android-based product means dealing with hardware from day one. Each processor (often called a System-on-Chip, or SoC) comes with its own customized version of Android. This package is known as a Board Support Package (BSP).
In simple terms:
AOSP = generic Android foundation.
BSP = Android adapted to a specific chip.
This layer controls how the software interacts with the device: performance, connectivity, drivers, main functionality and stability. Not all BSPs are equal, and not all are easy to work with: some are well-maintained and flexible; others are outdated, restricted, contain malware or difficult to maintain. This choice can quietly determine the long-term success or failure of a product.
Building custom hardware from scratch requires a lot of effort and time. This is why most teams begin with existing development kits (DevKits): pre-built hardware platforms designed for experimentation. Their main purpose is allowing a quick test of ideas:
Does the performance meet expectations?
Are the right connectivity options available?
Does the user experience feel right?
What other features will I need long-term?
The main focus in this stage is learning and refining requirements, it is not about shipping devkits to users. They help answer critical business questions early, before committing to expensive decisions.
Customizing Android, integrating features, controlling the user interface, and managing devices remotely, all of this requires more than just the base system.
Building the product is one challenge. Operating it is a different one.
This is where Emteria can help. Not to replace Android, but to simplify the customization process and make it usable in a product context. For example, enabling controlled device behavior (kiosk mode), remote updates, or consistent system customization across devices.
Once a prototype proves its value and receives good user feedback, the focus shifts to efficiency and scalability. This often involves simplifying the hardware by removing unnecessary components and optimizing cost and power consumption. At the same time, the software must become product-ready as well, with polished UI, stable performance and reliable update mechanisms to keep the device compliant with regulatory requirements.
Once devices are deployed, they become long-term commitments to their users.
Many teams think the journey ends with production. In reality, that’s when a new phase begins. Devices in the field require security updates, bug fixes and compliance with evolving regulations. And unlike apps, where users may decide how and when to update, OS updates must be tailored specifically for different types of products.
This is where early architectural decisions, especially around BSPs and system customization, start to show their impact. Without a clear update and maintenance strategy, even successful products can become difficult to operate over time.
Building an Android-based product requires aligning hardware, software, and long-term operations from the very beginning.
The companies that succeed are not necessarily the ones with the best idea. They are the ones who understand the full journey early and plan for it. Because in the world of connected devices, the real challenge is not getting to market, but staying there.