Back in 2005 , when there was nothing similar to smartphones and devices we use today, a handful of engineers Google had a and very secret project ambitious ahead . Its development was taking place in one of the rooms of the Google Campus in her four dozen engineers worked with the goal of creating a device that will revolutionize the phone industry, were the beginnings of Android .
Two years later, in January 2007 , these same engineers, plus others that had been incorporated by the way, had been working 60 to 80 hours per week during the previous 15 months. Writing and testing code, negotiating software licenses, traveling the world in search of parts, suppliers and manufacturers to shape mobile prototypes later, at the end of that year, expected to launch. But before that happened, Jobs unveiled the iPhone, and that changed everything.
According
recalls Chris DeSalvo , which at that time was one of the engineers working on the Android project “as a consumer, seeing the iPhone for the first time, wanted one. But Google engineer, I thought we had to start again “. Until that point affection iPhone to Android development. In Silicon Valley the Apple phone was received with open arms, even in Google. Everyone thought it might mean a change in the industry, as had already achieved with the creation of the iPod and iTunes success. However, within the team that was responsible for developing Android , the iPhone got sick, was a big hit.
2005 industry software for mobile phones was one of the most backward and dysfunctional existed. There were not enough networks or connections to navigate from mobile devices and were not powerful enough to move a decent software. And worst of all is that the market was controlled by a few carriers and manufacturers, and besides these, only a few wrote software for them, and the majority was clearly very bad. Also wanted to have the same operators controlled everything that went on phones.
Another reason why good software is not developed any mobile is because he tried, he lost time and money. There was no standard in the industry, each had its own phone software and proprietary applications, an application for a Motorola did not work on a Samsung, nor by Nokia. Each OS was different, even within the same company, such as Nokia, which had different versions of Symbian. Anyway, there was no room for entrepreneurial developers with good ideas, not if they wanted to make money. In the words of Larry Page , one of the creators of Google, “we had more than 100 different phones, and it was frustrating,” devote efforts to develop software for each of them.
However, Page and other Google executives, thought that sooner or later someone would a good step would be the domain of mobile business , in particular, were concerned about if that company was Microsoft. Microsoft at the time had the Windows CE system, which could be used in phones, notebooks, Pocket Pc’s and GPS’s, and if that became popular getting mass, Google had a big problem, because both were in a struggle over who dominated the search business. Google feared that expanded into other Windows mobile devices, Microsoft could block user access to Google search engine , causing millions of people to change their sources of service and therefore, Google lose a large chunk of the income received by the ads displayed on them.
Thus came the day Jobs introduced the iPhone, and when Andy Rubin, head of Android team saw it, had the same reaction as engineer Chris DeSalvo, was stunned. Automatically said, according to people who were with him, “I guess we will not submit that phone …”
“that phone” referred to what the Android team had been creating for all previous months. I had the code name “Sooner ” and had a more advanced than the newly introduced iPhone software. Had a full web browser with Internet access, you could use all the famous Google services and applications, such as Search, Maps, YouTube, etc.. and the software was not designed to run only on Sooner, but on any device. Also do not need a computer to sync, would use different applications at once and would have a store of applications that extend its capabilities.
However , was a major drawback regarding the iPhone. Sooner was awful aesthetically , it was like a BlackBerry, had a traditional physical keyboard and a small screen that was not even touch. Rubin and his team believed that consumers would prefer a good software to look good terminal. And rested on the little success that had hitherto attempts to create designs of various phones and the success itself had, for example, BlackBerry, a phone, a good keyboard, safe and ready communications. In contrast, the iPhone not only looked unlike anything seen so far , but also change the way you interact with your phone, which, the Android team had not into account, or just considered it risky or difficult. The iPhone dispensed with the traditional physical keyboard and replaced traditional buttons with different digital buttons for each application. He had a huge screen almost twice as seen before, it was touch, with all sorts of animation and effects. But in the eyes of Rubin and the Android team, the iPhone also had many failures. 
considered that users are not accustomed to come to a virtual keyboard, and they would need to “feel” the response of the heart rate, this is one of the main reasons that the first Android phone, the HTC G1 , available sliding keyboard. Ethan Beard, one of the first executives to join the Android project said, “we knew that Apple was going to announce a phone, everyone knew that, just thought it would not be as good.”
So with this “hiccup” , the entire team working on Android should take a new course . In a few weeks the new target and materialized hands were set to work with him. It focused on a touchscreen phone and codenamed “ Dream “. Its launch was delayed one year from the date originally planned, but during that time until his announcement in autumn 2008, were devoted to highlight and enhance those aspects that made the HTC Dream different iPhone and what to convince the public. From that day to this, Android has grown in all aspects , backed by millions and millions of devices worldwide.
Source and part of the book | theatlantic | Dogfight: How Apple and Google Went to War and Started a Revolution
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