If you’re really in-depth with keeping up with Android, you’re probably aware that when Android was first being designed, it wasn’t nearly as polished and appealing as it is today. The original HTC Dream (which later came to be known as the G1), seen above, still tried to keep many features of phones before it. Physical keyboard, dedicated buttons for receiving and ending calls, etc. It’s a far cry from the pure touchscreen devices Google offers today. That’s not even accounting for the other device Google was developing alongside the G1, which featured no touch screen at all and a Blackberry-esque form factor that was internally referred to as the “Sooner.” Obviously, that non-touchscreen device never actually hit the market, which some people believe is because Apple unveiled their iPhone, which would have made the original Android device look extremely antiquated by the time it was released.
According to a comment dug up from 2012 by an Android employee, Dianne Hackborn, that worked on the project since 2006, Apple really had nothing to do with which device hit the market. Google was developing both devices, one that was a safe bet based on what was currently available (the Sooner) and one that was more progressive with a touchscreen, hardware sensors, etc. (which turned out to be the Dream, or HTC G1). Aside from that, though, the devices weren’t that much different. One was obviously more advanced, but the internals and software were nearly identical. Changing course from one to the other wasn’t that much of a change for the Android team.
Hackborn says that regardless of whether or not Apple had announced their iPhone, the Sooner likely would have been dropped anyway. It didn’t fit with the core vision of where Google wanted to take Android, and during development it really held back what the team could do with a touchscreen device.
This is a pretty interesting bit of information to surface, true or not. We’re probably never going to know exactly what happens with these big company decisions, but having some insight from first-hand accounts always keeps the stories fresh.
source: OS News
via: Phone Arena
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