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Kevin (aka ThreadKilla)
The Day Google Had to 'Start Over' on Android - Fred Vogelstein - The Atlantic - http://www.theatlantic.com/technol...
from
"For most of Silicon Valley—including most of Google—the iPhone’s unveiling on January 9, 2007 was something to celebrate. Jobs had once again done the impossible. Four years before he’d talked an intransigent music industry into letting him put their catalog on iTunes for ninety-nine cents a song. Now he had convinced a wireless car­rier to let him build a revolutionary smartphone. 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.”" - Kevin (aka ThreadKilla)
2 things about this article: - Kevin (aka ThreadKilla)
1) It puts to rest for good the big lie, sometimes repeated around these parts, that Android 1.0 was always going to look like iOS 1.0 did. That was obviously BS from the beginning and now even Google admits it. Android was a copy. - Kevin (aka ThreadKilla)
2) Apple's greatest accomplishment with the iPhone was, perhaps, the shattering of the carriers' stranglehold on mobile innovation. That singular achievement opened the floodgates for the biggest transformation in technology since the PC. And it was something that Steve Jobs, through sheer force of will, made happen. We may not see that again for some time. Just look at the miserable failures of both Google and Apple to transform another hidebound industry; television. Since Jobs passing, neither company has been able to convince cable companies or content producers to get behind their TV initiatives. - Kevin (aka ThreadKilla)
I'll be interested to see how quickly Google insiders try to roll back the notion that they were caught flat-footed. - Kevin (aka ThreadKilla)
Interesting. I don't remember "Android 1.0 was always going to look like iOS 1.0 did" (any links?). - Amit Patel
I hated the carriers and the awful experience from them was the main reason I didn't want a cell phone. Apple changed all this. I was able to get a phone from the Apple store and never talk to anyone at AT&T. That made me incredibly happy. *Even if* the iPhone was just a dumb flip phone, I would've paid $$$ to get that user experience. It turned out the iPhone also had a terrific web browser. - Amit Patel
There is one FF user in particular who's made the indirect assertion that the iPhone didn't really change Google's direction at all. He's deleted his posts (a few times). - Kevin (aka ThreadKilla)
Excluding you-know-who, it seems like it's only in retrospect that people assume Android always looked like iOS. Just doing a cursory search for Android 0.8 and 0.9 screen shots makes it pretty clear that it didn't. - Victor Ganata
I guess I'm wrong. Seems like the Google party line is that they always intended to go with an iPhone OS-like interface well before the iPhone was released: See one of Google's first Android builds on the 2007 Sooner phone (update) - The Verge http://www.theverge.com/2012... - Victor Ganata
"Diane Hackthorn, an employee of Google's Android engineering group, has posted a comment on OSNews http://www.osnews.com/thread... in response to Steven Troughton-Smith's post saying that his impressions are 'a little misleading.' Hackthorn says she joined the Android team in 2006, and explains that the Dream (also known as the T-Mobile G1) and the Sooner 'were basically the same.'" - Victor Ganata
"Hackthorn says they merely look different on the face because the UI on the Sooner was optimized for non-touch input, but that the underlying code is the same version of Android. Additionally, she says 'I don't recall the exact dates, but I believe the decision to drop Sooner was well before the iPhone announcement.'" - Victor Ganata
If true, it makes you wonder why a key Android engineer like DeSalvo would be so gobsmacked by the iPhone. - Kevin (aka ThreadKilla)
This is fascinating. 2007's pre-M3 version of Android; the Google Sooner - High Caffeine Content http://blog.steventroughtonsmith.com/2012... - Victor Ganata
So it would be fair to say that the iPhone killed the Sooner, but Android was always meant to have touch? - Victor Ganata
I think this does fit the narrative of the idea that before the iPhone came out, everyone was more focused on gunning for Blackberry. - Victor Ganata
"...besides the massive switch to a more Touch based approach..." So, in other words, the key differentiator of the iPhone. - Kevin (aka ThreadKilla)
I'd also argue that iPhone adoption was low in the first year more because of cost than anything else. And my read of the story is that the "evolution" of Android after 2007 was more of a reaction than a natural progression of the internal thinking up until the launch of the iPhone. One would assume that the basic functionality of a smart mobile device (in terms of having access to mail, the web, IM, etc.) was obvious regardless of whether the primary interface was a touch screen or keyboard. So, having those UI elements in place was to be expected. - Kevin (aka ThreadKilla)