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by ori_b 4571 days ago
This is not actually true, although it makes a good myth.

Android seems to have been targeting a variety of form factors from pre-iPhone times, and had a touchscreen interface implemented before Apple released the iPhone:

http://www.osnews.com/story/25264
3 comments
jolan 4571 days ago
From the article:

> Within weeks the Android team had completely reconfigured its objectives. A phone with a touchscreen, code-named Dream, that had been in the early stages of development, became the focus.

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ori_b 4571 days ago
So, "They prioritized a form factor they'd already been working on"?

I'm not sure that I'd describe that as "The Day Google Had to 'Start Over' on Android".

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rgbrenner 4571 days ago
"had a touchscreen interface implemented before Apple released the iPhone:"

Your link says November 12 2007 was when Google demoed a touchscreen phone.

The iphone was announced Jan 9, 2007, and went on sale Jun 29, 2007.

What calendar are you using where November is before June?

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ori_b 4570 days ago
Oops. My mistake -- I admit, I only skimmed it, since I knew what I expected it to contain. Take a look at the Samsung Switch, which was leaked in Jan 2007: http://gizmodo.com/229579/google-switch-phone-by-google-and-...
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thoughtsimple 4571 days ago
How do you reconcile your view that this is a myth with this:

"But for the Google Android team, the iPhone was a kick in the stomach.

'What we had suddenly looked just so . . . nineties,' DeSalvo said. 'It’s just one of those things that are obvious when you see it.'"

Either the Android team already had something like the iPhone but it was so far out that it may as well not have existed or even their work on the touchscreen version was not nearly good enough to ship after the iPhone. I don't think you can read that passage and think that Google was ready with an iPhone like touchscreen design. Even their early touchscreen designs that I saw were still smallish screens with physical keyboards attached.

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ori_b 4571 days ago
I was interning at RIM (now BlackBerry) during the era around the release of the iPhone. RIM also had prototyped iPhone form factors at the time. They were backwards, poorly implemented, and generally turds. You may remember the BlackBerry Storm. You may wish you didn't remember it.

Android was clearly in a similar situation. (In fact, they were clearly playing catchup until at least Android 4.0). However, there was something working. The concept was there. A prototype implementation was there. The execution was not.

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