The very first commercially available Android smartphone was the T-Mobile G1 / HTC Dream (pictured below), which saw a limited launch in late 2008. Back then, few would have imagined that Android could become the world’s most used smartphone OS in just several years.
In
fact, in 2007, when Google announced the Open Handset Alliance and its Android-related plans, some of the big boys of the smartphone world publicly stated that they believed this new Linux-based, open source platform would not be successful.
Nokia was the king of smartphones in 2007, thanks to its army of Symbian devices. Do you know what the Finnish company had to say about Android in November of that year? According to Reuters, a Nokia spokesperson simply declared:
“We don't see this as a threat.”
Perhaps this was one of Nokia’s fundamental mistakes that made it rapidly lose market share in the years that followed. Ultimately, Nokia’s devices and services unit ended up being bought by Microsoft, but not before turning to Android for its line of cheap Nokia X handsets.
Speaking of Microsoft, here’s what the company’s general manager of marketing at its Windows Mobile business thought about Android in 2007:
"It really sounds that they are getting a whole bunch of people together to build a phone and that's something we've been doing for five years. I don't understand the impact that they are going to have."
We’re pretty sure that Microsoft now fully understands the impact that Android had, and will continue to have - not just on the mobile market, but also on pretty much everything that connects to the internet.
Recommended Stories
Also interesting - and funny in a rather sad way - is the statement of a Symbian official from back then:
"We have been going nine years and have probably seen a dozen new platforms come in and tell us we are under attack. We take it seriously but we are the ones with real phones, real phone platforms and a wealth of volume built up over years. […] We have seen several attempts to create some sort of standard out of Linux… but Linux is fundamentally fragmentary. Linux is unmanaged and unmanageable."
Well,
Google seems to know how to manage the unmanageable - helped, of course, by all the talented people it hired, all the money that it invested in software development, and all the partnerships it made with manufacturers and carriers over the years.
Android is currently the indisputable leader of the smartphone market, with a global share of around 80%, and 1 billion active users. Apple’s iOS (with a market share or around %16) and Microsoft’s Windows Phone (around %3.5 - %4) complete the top three.
The latest version of Android, called Android L for now, will be released this fall with lots of new features and enhancements, most likely to further confirm Google's supremacy over the mobile devices market.
A discussion is a place, where people can voice their opinion, no matter if it
is positive, neutral or negative. However, when posting, one must stay true to the topic, and not just share some
random thoughts, which are not directly related to the matter.
Things that are NOT allowed:
Off-topic talk - you must stick to the subject of discussion
Offensive, hate speech - if you want to say something, say it politely
Spam/Advertisements - these posts are deleted
Multiple accounts - one person can have only one account
Impersonations and offensive nicknames - these accounts get banned
Moderation is done by humans. We try to be as objective as possible and moderate with zero bias. If you think a
post should be moderated - please, report it.
Have a question about the rules or why you have been moderated/limited/banned? Please,
contact us.
FCC OKs Cingular\'s purchase of AT&T Wireless
Things that are NOT allowed: