Before Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) unveiled their first iPhone in 2007, Android originally didn’t feature support for touchscreens. This report comes from a recent document released last week.
The latest finding shows Google copied apple
This latest finding was revealed in the legal battle between Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (LON:BC94) (KRX:0059935). The document that revealed the finding was titled “Android Project Software Functional Requirements”. Android initially was based on Sun Java running on Linux. The old document from 2006 explained, “Touchscreens will not be supported. The product was designed with the presence of discrete physical buttons as an assumption. However, there is nothing fundamental in the product’s architecture that prevents the support of touchscreens in the future.”
When the first iPhone was introduced by Steve Jobs a year later, Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s Android director then shunned the phone that was already in the works. The phone originally featured a keyboard rather than a touchscreen. The major update for Google was explained in the document, “A touch screen for finger-based navigation — including multitouch capabilities — is required. Stylus-based navigation is not supported.”
The touchscreen was difficult for Google Android to master
Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had to improve the touchscreen support for Android. The HTC One/G1 included hardware support for the multi touch but it didn’t include touch typing. It wasn’t until a year later that Android offered support for touch typing with Android 2.0.
Android’s lead executives stand by their products. Hiroshi Lockheimer (vice president for Android engineering), explained, “We like to have our own identity.” During his testimony, he claimed he first saw the demo for Android back in early 2006. He claimed he was impressed with the project and wanted to be a part of it. During that period, the project involved twenty to thirty people working on the software. When the phone first launched two years later, that number grew to about 70. Lockheimer said that number was kept low for a reason. He added, “The hours were pretty grueling. They continue to be grueling, by the way. … We work really hard.”
