Android May Have Looked Like BlackBerry Before iPhone Was Announced
A court document shows the initial plan for Android was to have physical keys and no touchscreen input support
Samsung and Apple continue their legal tussle over patents infringement and this time, there is a twist to the process. In 2006, the original plan for Android phones included the use of physical keys for navigation and control with no touchscreen input support. This was revealed in a document last week, suggesting that until the iPhone was announced, there were no plans for Android being an OS with touchscreen functionality.
The documents showing “Android Project Software Functional Requirements” were confidentially distributed to hardware manufacturers, giving them an idea of Google’s plan for mobile devices. During that period also, Android was designed using the infrastructure of Linux 2.6 which had no support for touchscreen inputs.
“Touchscreens will not be supported,” Google said in a 2006 specification for Android devices. “The product was designed with the presence of discrete physical buttons as an assumption. However, there is nothing fundamental in the products architecture that prevents the support of touchscreens in the future.”
Another interesting unwrap was a part of the document which revealed thatAndroid would use Microsoft’s FAT 32 file system which would later become a problem for Google as Microsoft is reported to earn $5 to $15 from everyAndroid device sold.
Image via Zimbio
A court document shows the initial plan for Android was to have physical keys and no touchscreen input support
Samsung and Apple continue their legal tussle over patents infringement and this time, there is a twist to the process. In 2006, the original plan for Android phones included the use of physical keys for navigation and control with no touchscreen input support. This was revealed in a document last week, suggesting that until the iPhone was announced, there were no plans for Android being an OS with touchscreen functionality.
The documents showing “Android Project Software Functional Requirements” were confidentially distributed to hardware manufacturers, giving them an idea of Google’s plan for mobile devices. During that period also, Android was designed using the infrastructure of Linux 2.6 which had no support for touchscreen inputs.
“Touchscreens will not be supported,” Google said in a 2006 specification for Android devices. “The product was designed with the presence of discrete physical buttons as an assumption. However, there is nothing fundamental in the products architecture that prevents the support of touchscreens in the future.”
Another interesting unwrap was a part of the document which revealed thatAndroid would use Microsoft’s FAT 32 file system which would later become a problem for Google as Microsoft is reported to earn $5 to $15 from everyAndroid device sold.
Image via Zimbio
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