The Android operating system has come a long way to become the most popular mobile platform in the world. Many versions have changed and a huge number of new functions have been introduced. However, few remember exactly how it all began. We have prepared a series of articles with a complete history of the development of the Android operating system.
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Where did Android start?

The Android operating system was first announced as a product only in 2007. This happened two years after the takeover of Android by Google. Yes, Android is another startup that Google acquired and turned into candy. It was in 2007, after the announcement, that Google released the first public version of Android along with an emulator, and also demonstrated the system on a BlackBerry-style push-button all-in-one. The device was created by HTC.

Around the same time, Apple introduced its first iPhone. Google, seeing a new revolution, turned Android development into the “touch channel”, abandoning the concept of BlackBerry-style devices.

The public version, called Milestone 3, was already focused on touchscreen use only. Later, test versions 0.5, 0.9 were released, and only then the first stable release took place.

Android 1.0 Apple Pie (2008)

By the time Apple Pie was released, quite a long time had passed since the acquisition of Android Inc by Google - about three years.

T-Mobile G1

The era of the Android operating system officially starts on October 22, 2008, when sales of the T-Mobile G1 smartphone began in the United States. Android control 1.0. This device is also known as HTC Dream. The device incorporated all the features of smart phones of that time: touch screen, horizontal QWERTY keyboard, GPS. If the iPhone at the same time had a minimum physical buttons, then the HTC Dream was the complete opposite - almost all the controls known at that time were located on its body. In less than two years, 1 million smartphones were sold.

Even then, some of the fundamental features of Android were laid down: a notification system with a top “curtain”, widgets for the desktop, integration with Gmail, and the Android Market application store. It is noteworthy that Android interface was developed in collaboration with the Swedish by The Astonishing Tribe, which was later acquired by BlackBerry.

Then the operating system was codenamed Astroboy, but then the name was replaced by Apple Pie. The decision was made due to possible litigation. It was from that time that the tradition began to call Android versions various delicacies.

Android 1.1 (2009)

In February 2009, the first cumulative Android update 1.1. As you can understand from the version, this was a minor update that did not bring big changes, but added a couple of functions. For example, there was a voice Google search Voice Search, paid applications could be sold in the Play Market store, cards received Google support Latitude. In addition, support for over-the-air firmware updates has appeared. It was then that the “About phone” item was introduced into the settings menu.

Android 1.5 Cupcake (2009)

Only in April 2009, the Android 1.5 Cupcake update was released, which brought an integral part of modern operating systems - an on-screen keyboard. This way, manufacturers could release new phones without physical input keys. The first Android smartphone with full touch controls was the HTC Magic.

HTC Magic

Otherwise, the changes were extremely minor: new icons, a fresh design of the search widget, the ability to create several widgets for one program, a full implementation of the clipboard, video recording and playback, many improvements in standard applications Google, setting wallpaper on the lock screen, improved zoom in the browser.

Android 1.6 Donut (2009)

Android has evolved quite quickly. In the same 2009, but already in September, the third update in a row was released under version 1.6. Donut was chosen as the name. One of the most important innovations was support for CDMA networks, which allowed Verizon and other operators to sell smartphones to their subscribers. Also an important change was support for screens with resolutions greater than 480x320 pixels. It was then that manufacturers gained freedom in terms of installing displays in their devices.

The Android Market application store has received a new design - now white and more pleasing to the eye. Also, screenshots finally appeared on program pages - the user could look at what he was downloading.

An item appeared in the settings menu that talked about battery usage. Then it was in the “About phone” section. By at least users could find out what exactly “eats” battery power so quickly. And the branded search widget has learned to search on the device and show results.

Android 2.0 and 2.1 Eclair (2010)

The Android 2.0 Eclair update, introduced in November 2009, became truly epoch-making and significant in the history of the platform. It was the device with version 2.0 and subsequent updates that began to march around the world, capturing the mobile device market.

Motorola Droid

The first gadget with Android 2.0 was the iconic Motorola Droid, which was one of the favorite devices for geeks. The smartphone offered powerful hardware and stock Android with a lot of features. Motorola Droid came with a 3.7-inch screen (854x480 pixels), a single-core TI OMAP Cortex A8 processor and 256 MB of RAM. There was still room for a classic horizontal keyboard.

Important changes and innovations in Android 2.0 Eclair:

• Multiple account support Google posts and the ability to integrate accounts from other applications (synchronization).
• Full turn-by-turn navigation in maps Google Maps with 3D display.
• New unlock screen with gesture.
• Updated design standard desktop with new icons and widgets. The appearance has become more modern and neat. Almost all elements have been redrawn for higher screen resolutions.
• On-screen buttons to control incoming calls with gestures. Now smartphones did not necessarily have to have hardware “Accept” and “Reject” buttons.
• A heavily updated browser with support for modern web standards at that time. Even HTML5 support was implemented with video playback. However, there were no multi-touch gestures for zooming yet. A full-fledged address bar.
• More convenient onscreen keyboard with new design.
• Text-to-speech translation.
• Installing your own tracks for a call.

In January 2010, Google released a minor, but very important update for its subsequent strategy - Android 2.1 Eclair. The first smartphone from the Nexus line is being released based on this OS.

Nexus One

The device called Nexus One was created by HTC based on a processor that was new at that time Qualcomm Snapdragon S1 with a frequency of 1 GHz. The device featured an AMOLED display. The main changes in Android 2.1 Eclair were external: animations, minor design changes, live wallpapers, etc. Later, Update 1 was released for the Nexus One, which brought support for a popular feature from the iPhone - multi-touch gesture for zooming in and out.

Android 2.2 Froyo (2010)

In mid-2010, the Android 2.2 Froyo (frozen yogurt) update was released, which immediately identified one of the main advantages of the Nexus line - One smartphone was the first to update to this version. In update 2.2, Google developers focused on increasing performance and optimization. One of the important innovations was the JIT compiler, which could convert Java code into native code for fast execution.

The browser has become faster thanks to the integration of the V8 engine to increase Javascript performance. The desktop screen became more convenient, as the bottom panel became less useless - it now had two additional buttons - a dialer and a browser. The dots on the sides called up a menu with additional functions. These Google features adopted from third-party shells - HTC Sense already existed then.

The gallery has undergone major changes. For the first time, 3D animations and objects appeared. We can say that this program was ahead of all others and Android itself in development. And it was in Android 2.2 that exclusive support appeared Adobe Flash, which was downloaded from the Android Market and worked in a standard browser. You could watch videos and even play some Flash games. However, the module worked very slowly and unstable, so even watching the video was a problem. Around the same time Steve Jobs calls Adobe Flash outdated and slow technology. Many will disagree with this, but in the end they abandoned Flash in favor of HTML5.

By the way, it was in Froyo that it became possible to distribute Wi-Fi, that is, turn the device into a portable access point to share the Internet with other devices. For those who love passwords, we have introduced an unlock code.

Android 2.3 Gingerbread

Six months later (December 2010) after the release of version 2.2, Google releases another major update - Android 2.3 Gingerbread. The first device with a “carrot” was the Nexus S from Samsung. The device at one time was quite breakthrough and interesting - all thanks to its powerful hardware and unique design with curved screen. It is noteworthy that at the same time the hit iPhone 4 was released, and Microsoft finally released the not very successful Windows Phone.

Nexus S

The Nexus S was one of the first Android devices without a D-Pad trackpad for control. Of the hardware buttons, the smartphone only had power and volume keys, which was a breakthrough at that time.

Android 2.3 Gingerbread brought significant interface changes. Google continued to polish it and make it look nice. Animations have become even smoother, and icons are more beautiful. Some elements have been combed. For the first time since version 0.9, the top status bar received an updated appearance - it became black, and more indicator icons were added to it. In general, the entire Android 2.3 has become darker - apparently, the design was made specifically for the black Nexus S with a screen Super AMOLED.

Other innovations in Android 2.3:

• Character-by-character text selection system. Previously, you could only select all the text in a field, not individual sets of characters.
• New keyboard with a fresh, dark design and support for multi-touch combinations.
• Android Market 2.0 with an updated interface and nice animations.
• Front camera support. Although selfies were not yet popular in the days of Android 2.3, smartphones already had front cameras.
• Many improvements for game developers: use of sound, implementation of controls, normal access to the graphics subsystem and storage. This made it possible to release full-fledged games with 3D graphics.
• Improved power and battery management.

Image used in Android 2.3 easter egg

Interestingly, it was from this version that an Easter egg appeared in Android, which can be activated in “Settings”. Gingerbread has become a pioneer in this area, bringing us a variety of gingerbread men on screen.

Android 2.3 Gingerbread has become one of the most successful and popular versions of the Google mobile platform. Many devices still run this OS. All thanks to low hardware requirements and a good set of functions.

After version 2.3, the Android operating system still has ups and downs, but more on that already in the following articles from this series.

Today we will begin a series of articles devoted to the history of Android development. The first part will begin with the background, with how the system originated and what the mobile market was like at that time. In truth, many users were not even interested in this issue, were not interested in the development of what millions of users around the world use today. So let's finally understand what real Android is.

I would like to start from the moment when Android was not even planned yet. It was 2005. At that time, smartphones based on Symbian, Windows Mobile, and the company’s devices became widely popular on the market. Even at that time, phones were not so stupid, and they could well be called smartphones. Now, of course, for us these times seem very distant and long forgotten, but this is not so.

By the way, at the same time there was not even Twitter yet, and YouTube was considered a dubious startup, however, Vista was then among the ranks of innovative operating systems, and Apple actively denied the fact of developing the iPhone.

The most popular and innovative devices of that time were considered to be laptops, which today, unfortunately, and perhaps fortunately, are becoming victims of the development of other, more convenient means of communication.

Andy Rubin and Danger

Several years ago, before Android existed, there was a company called Danger, which was founded by former Apple engineer Andy Rubin. Andy was born in 1962 and grew up in New York (Chappaqua). He was the son of a psychologist who soon founded his own company. As a child, Rubin was interested in BBS (a way for computer users to communicate over switched telephone networks).

Zarko Draganic, Rubin's former colleague at Apple: "The classic Rubin approach is: You do something just for the sake of doing it, because it's cool..."

The company's main achievement was the development of the Hiptop smartphone. The device had a landscape keyboard, as well as software with which you could instantly share messages, surf the Internet and send email. In partnership with T-Mobile, Danger rebranded Hiptop as Sidekick.

The device became popular due to its unique business model, which was significantly different from other business models of the time. However, soon Larry Page and Sergey Brin noticed the company; their interest lay in the wider distribution of Google's search engine. Then by for unknown reasons Andy Rubin was removed from his post as head of Danger, and he soon created new company. His goal was to develop a completely open platform.

Founding of Android Inc.

The Android company has not produced or released any products for two years. At this time, Rubin and a small team of software engineers were trying to create a new generation of software for smartphones, and the main parameter was open source. In general, Android became more of a logical continuation of everything that Rubin managed to achieve in Danger.

Investors quickly picked up the company's idea and began to support it, at the same time Google saw in Android what it needed. It needed a smartphone company to beat Microsoft and BlackBerry. Page and Brin wanted to see more devices on the market with Google's search engine, because even then services were of great importance, and Android, as an open source platform, was ideally suited to the requirements of Google's founders. And in July 2005, Google bought Android Inc. for 50 million dollars.

First prototypes

However, it should be understood that without hardware the software is useless. How many of you remember which Android smartphone was the very first? Your answer is probably incorrect. The very first prototype of the first Android smartphone was Sooner. The device was very similar in appearance to BlackBerry devices, as it had a full QWERTY keyboard.

The device was equipped with a display with a resolution of 320 x 240, a 1.3 megapixel camera, 64 megabytes of RAM, as well as GPRS support, a removable battery and even a slot for an SD card.

The reason for having a full keyboard and not having a touch display was due to the reluctance of consumers to switch to touchscreen smartphones. Even the iPhone was appreciated by few at first.

Graham Wheeler, director of service and products for HTC in Europe, believes that cooperation with Google was quite risky for HTC, because at that time Microsoft played a significant role in the market with its Windows Mobile, and Google at that time was not on the best terms with the latter . However, HTC decided to take a risk; the personal acquaintance of Peter Chow (CEO of HTC, who was recently removed from his position) and Andy Rubin from the days of Danger was of great importance in this. HTC saw promise in Android, because when developing the system, the emphasis was on access to the Internet, Andy wanted to give people the chance to “put” the Internet in their pockets.

“I remember my emotions then. We knew something big was at stake. Google was behind it all. I think we knew there was some potential in this - to give users the experience of using the Internet, to give people a platform and admin rights, and the freedom that we had as a manufacturer to push innovation. Google's strategy was very different from Microsoft's: Okay, we give you the platform and you can make your own changes. We want you - HTC - to make changes." - Graham

iPhone influence

There is no denying the influence of the iPhone on the development of Android, in particular, we are talking about the Sooner prototype. Yes, the iPhone was not the first fully touchscreen smartphone on the market, but Apple managed to rethink the way we use smartphones, focusing on responsiveness and touchscreen. However, then - in January 2007, when the iPhone 2G was shown - the heads of many leading companies of that time spoke unflatteringly about the new Apple product and even grinned.

Steve Ballmer, then the head of Microsoft, ridiculed the iPhone for its high price, carrier restrictions, and low data transfer speeds. BlackBerry manufacturer RIM also disdained the release of the iPhone.

However, only Google understood the seriousness of what was happening. And while everyone was ridiculing Apple’s brainchild, Google was busy working on a new smartphone. What happened to Sooner? It had to be abandoned.

“As a consumer, I was simply amazed. I wanted an iPhone immediately. However, as a Google engineer, I thought we needed to start over... We had a smartphone that looked like a phone from the 90s... And this was the case where everything seemed obvious,” - Chris De Salvo.

Andy's reaction was no less interesting:

“Yadryona Matryona! I don't think we should start shipping this phone (Sooner)."

Then it was decided to launch the touchscreen HTC Dream (T-Mobile G1) on the market. However, we would like to see the Sooner as well, because the device looks very attractive to this day. Of course, the iPhone played a decisive role in the development of Android, and this is where healthy competition allows innovative products ahead of schedule, even taking into account the unwillingness of consumers to use the product.

HTC Dream became one of the most innovative smartphones of its time. Externally, the device resembled a Sidekick. Technically, it probably won’t seem so advanced to you, but for that time it was quite enough to maintain relatively fast work systems. Dream was equipped with a single-core processor with clock frequency 528 MHz, 192 megabytes of RAM, 3.2-inch display with a resolution of 320 x 480.

The HTC Dream was sold worldwide, unlike the original G1, which was locked to T-Mobile. Google gave HTC the opportunity to sell the G1 under its own brand. HTC Dream has become an excellent Android smartphone. Why? Because Google decided to take a chance.

Based on materials from androidcentral

In recent years, the mobile market has changed so much that today even a top-end smartphone from five years ago looks ridiculous and ridiculous. The development of mobile operating systems has moved by leaps and bounds, and nothing remains but memories of the once dominant Symbian and Windows Mobile. We will try to understand in this article what has happened over the past five years and why the changes have turned out to be so global.

2007: iPhone OS 1.0 and the first announcement of Android

2007 was one of the most important years in the history of the development of pocket computers and smartphones. It was this year, on January 9, that the iPhone was presented at the Macworld Conference & Expo, changing all users’ ideas about smartphones. After the presentation of the “Steve Jobs phone,” all other smartphones instantly became obsolete, so much so that if the iPhone had been released a year later, the situation would not have changed at all.

It was the iPhone that set the style of interaction with a smartphone that we are accustomed to today. No control keys, no stylus and small elements on the screen, no joystick, replaced by a large clear screen, a truly smart operating system, a desktop similar to Mac OS X, a full-fledged web browser and the concept of “multiple taps” to access any function of the device. Released to the market in June, the iPhone became an absolute bestseller for several years to come and brought the Apple company billions in profits.

Interestingly, in technical terms, the iPhone was not a breakthrough at all. Almost all the discoveries attributed to Steve Jobs and Apple existed before, but, as has always happened with Apple, they were the first to think of putting all the best together and implementing it at such a high level. This was largely possible thanks to the use of a full-fledged OS, which was actually a fork of the desktop Mac OS X and, as a result, had the broadest capabilities for creating applications. They could use any of the phone's features in their work, including the 3D accelerator, which made the iPhone OS interface work surprisingly smoothly and quickly.

The first version of iPhone OS did not have any special functionality, but it offered users a fairly complete stack of applications for everyday work, including a smart address book, browser, multimedia player, scheduler, email client, alarm clock and others. For everything else, oddly enough, Steve Jobs suggested using web applications, which already at that time worked perfectly in the mobile version of Safari. Support for third-party applications was not provided as such and appeared only in the second version of the operating system, which was released exactly a year after sales of the first iPhone began.

2007 was also the year Android announcement, which clearly occurred under pressure from the rapidly gaining popularity of the Apple product. At that time, Android appeared only in the form of a beta version of the development kit (SDK), equipped with an emulator in which you could play with the OS live.

On November 12, the SDK was posted online, and any user or developer could form their personal impression of the OS and decide for themselves whether it was worth their attention. And the impressions of most people turned out to be very mixed. The suspicious resemblance to the iPhone OS was immediately apparent; Android looked like some kind of ridiculous copy of the operating system for the iPhone, much less spectacular, but actually repeating it. Secondly, Google took a slightly strange but logical path by equipping the OS with the Dalvik virtual machine, which runs its own bytecode format, which was generated from the bytecode of Java applications.

However, the main feature of the OS was its obvious flawed nature, caused by the pursuit of the rapidly gaining popularity of iPhone OS. The first Android didn't even have such simple things as an on-screen keyboard, support for Bluetooth and OpenGL, the virtual machine executed bytecode without using JIT compilation, and the overall impression was that there was no central line in the OS, but there are many interesting ideas, carelessly stacked on top of each other. This feeling, by the way, will persist for a long time, until the release of the fourth version of the OS.

Be that as it may, as a result, Google was still able to lure independent developers to its side by organizing a competition to create unique applications with very tempting prizes in the form of many dollar bills. This trick gave a big win when launching sales of the first Android smartphone next year.

2008: iPhone OS 2.0 and Android 1.0

The year 2008 was marked by two important events, one of which was the release of the new iPhone 3G running iPhone OS 2.0. The smartphone itself was not of particular interest and was nothing more than a slightly modified version of the first iPhone, which added support for 3G and A-GPS. But the iPhone OS 2.0 operating system again became a breakthrough of sorts, bringing long-awaited support to owners of the old and new versions of the smartphone. native applications.

The reasons why this event became so important are simple. Being a full-fledged OS running on standard modern hardware and supporting all its capabilities, iPhone OS gave developers the opportunity to create applications without regard to compatibility, screen size, device limitations or runtime environment (Java ME, for example). This has led to the emergence of a large number mobile applications a completely new class that uses position sensors, a compass, a GPS module and the advantages of a large screen. In addition, iPhone OS, in fact, marked the beginning of the emergence of truly high-quality mobile games that boasted good 3D graphics (using the built-in 3D accelerator with full OpenGL support), as well as multi-finger touch control and position sensor control.

The correctly chosen policy of distributing applications only through official store App Store: Every creation uploaded to it was checked by Apple employees for quality and absence of malicious behavior. You could buy and install any software in a few taps on the screen using the official App Store client, find out application ratings and look at screenshots before purchasing. While not the inventor of the online app store as such, Apple actually became the promoter of this idea, completely prohibiting users from installing software from other sources and, in essence, forcing a change in the thinking of users.

It is worth noting that, despite the completeness of the iPhone OS as a serious operating system, at that time it actually did not have multitasking. In order to maintain smooth operation and “responsiveness” of the OS, Apple programmers left the ability to work in the background only to stock applications pre-installed in the OS, while third party software I was killed immediately after switching to another task. And although this approach smacked of DOS, it bore fruit in the early stages of the OS’s existence, when the iPhone’s performance was severely limited.

The second important and, probably, even more significant event of 2008 was actually the first birth of the Android operating system, which took place on September 23 with the release of Android SDK 1.0, which included an almost finished, but still flawed operating system.

The first serial smartphone on this OS appeared a month later and was developed by HTC specifically for Google. It received a double name: HTC Dream or T-Mobile G1. Only with the release of this device did the real highlight of Android become apparent as an operating system that turns a smartphone into a kind of terminal for accessing Google services. The fact is that Android not only included many client applications for search engine services (search, mail, calendar, maps, chat and YouTube), but also allowed the user to link with all these services once by entering their email username and password. After that, messages from email and chat, notifications from the calendar began to pour into the smartphone, and all contacts were automatically synchronized with Google. The same login and password were used to access the application store, which already included many software developed within a year since the release of the beta version of the Android SDK.

2009: iPhone OS 3.0 and Android 1.1–2.1

2009 can rightfully be considered the year of the heyday of Android as a mobile OS. Manufacturers of mobile equipment began to take a closer look at Android and announce their first devices based on it, Google continued to hastily refine the OS, patching multiple spaces in its design and functionality.

On February 9, the search giant released the first update of the operating system under the index 1.1, which did not bring any special innovations and was released to fix bugs and problems found in the API. At the end of April, the company released a full-fledged Android 1.5 update, officially named Cupcake. This version included many important changes, such as an on-screen keyboard, desktop widgets, the ability to shoot videos, support for Bluetooth headsets, automatic screen rotation, and many others.

Six months later, on September 15, Google announced Android 1.6 Donut, which included many improvements, a speech synthesis engine, and also, very importantly, support for higher screen resolutions than 320 by 480 and an integrated function for adjusting applications to different resolutions. The latter made it possible to run applications on different devices without any problems, even if the developer did not provide support for different screen resolutions (roughly speaking, the image was simply scaled).

In just a month, Google releases Android 2.0 Eclair, which can be called the last in the transition to a truly stable and fully functional operating system. Eclair includes many improvements, such as support for multiple Google accounts, Bluetooth 2.1, a new on-screen keyboard, a redesigned interface, and many improvements to stock apps, such as SMS, browser and camera, which finally received support for various effects, digital zoom and macro focus.

The year 2009 is also the year the first smartphone models running the new OS were released. The leader in this market is the Taiwanese HTC, which released three new smartphone models at once: HTC Magic, the more advanced HTC Hero and the budget HTC Tattoo. Later, Chinese Huawei enters the game with the budget smartphone Pulse and Samsung with the first device of the legendary Galaxy lines, as well as a budget “spoke” (Spica). However, the real sensation is made by Motorola, which suddenly emerged from the shadows with its - which later became a cult - top-end smartphone Motorola Droid, equipped with a stunning 3.7-inch screen with a resolution of 480 x 854 pixels, a high-performance OMAP3430 processor, 256 MB of RAM and working running the latest Android 2.0. It was thanks to Android that Motorola was able to break into the seemingly lost smartphone market and subsequently firmly hold its position.

As for the iPhone OS, Apple is sticking to its previous course of gradual annual upgrades. On July 17, Steve Jobs presents the iPhone 3GS to the public, equipped with an improved display, a more powerful Samsung S5PC100 processor operating at 600 MHz (instead of the standard 833), a PowerVR SGX535 3D graphics accelerator, twice the amount of RAM (256 MB instead of 128 MB), digital compass and 3 MP video camera (instead of 2 MP in iPhone 3G). As expected, the third version of the smartphone runs iPhone OS 3.0, which includes more than a hundred innovations, including the copy and paste function, MMS support, Spotlight search throughout the smartphone, as well as remote wipe and smartphone search functions.

2010: Windows Phone 7, Android 2.2–2.3, iOS 4.0

2010 was probably the busiest year in the history of mobile technology. The most significant event was the announcement of the Windows Phone 7 operating system, work on which began in 2008. The OS was presented on February 15 at the Mobile World Congress exhibition and immediately attracted everyone's attention thanks to a completely new, unusual and incredibly impressive Metro interface.

Metro looked stylish, minimalistic and at the same time brought the experience of communicating with the OS and applications to a completely different level, or more precisely, returned the user to familiar models of interaction with environment, to which we are accustomed in everyday life. The interface simultaneously combined all the main graphic components of a modern urban city, such as information boards, guidebooks and glossy magazines, making it intuitive and easy to use.

It is interesting that, despite completely new interface and the programming API, which made all applications written for Windows Mobile incompatible with the new OS, inside Windows Phone continued to remain the same Windows CE with an outdated kernel based on Windows 95 technologies. For the development of applications and games, Microsoft proposed using a special version of Silverlight and XNA framework, also used in the Zune media player and Xbox 360. However, as with iOS, the operating system's multitasking capabilities were reduced so that the programmer could not rely on background execution of the application, but could use the API to perform some types of background tasks such as receiving mail or updating data from the Internet.

On October 11, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced ten devices running Windows Phone 7 from manufacturers such as HTC, Dell, Samsung and LG. The devices were immediately released to the market.

2010 was also the year of another technological triumph for Apple, which presented the world with three significant products at once: the new, truly modernized iPhone 4, the iPad tablet and the iOS 4.0 operating system, which finally introduced multitasking.

The central event in this whole chain, of course, is connected with the iPad - tablet computer, which Steve Jobs spoke about back in 1983, predicting the release of “a powerful computer the size of a book that will take no more than twenty minutes to learn how to use.” From a technical point of view, the revolution did not happen this time either. Essentially, it was just a large iPhone with a 9.7-inch screen, a 1 GHz processor and a special modification of iPhone OS 3.2, which was almost no different from the smartphone version and allowed the use of all the same applications. However, thanks to the quality of workmanship, Apple was once again able to open up a completely new market.

The iPad was introduced in April, but already in June, following its tradition, Apple announced the iPhone 4, the main features of which were a screen with a resolution of 960 x 640 pixels, double the amount of RAM (512 MB) and a 0.3 megapixel front camera for video calls. . Along with the new iPhone, iOS 4.0 was introduced, which became the first OS that was incompatible with some previous versions of the smartphone and available for a new type of device - the iPad.

The main highlight of iOS 4.0 was more complete, but at the same time inferior, multitasking. From now on, third-party applications could run in the background, but their capabilities were limited to a set of “background APIs”, much in the same way as is implemented in Windows Phone. Applications could play music, determine the location of the device, display notifications, request extra time to complete an unfinished task, but could not “just run” in the background, as is the case in desktop operating systems or Android OS.

For the Android ecosystem, 2010 was no less significant. It was this year that became a real boom in the release of Android devices by almost all significant players mobile market. Developers began to take a serious look at the OS, so that by the middle of the year 100 thousand applications could already be found in the Android Market, and by the end of the year their number had grown to 400 thousand. In the same year, there were two major OS updates, thanks to which Android could already be called a complete OS.

In May, version Android 2.2 Froyo was introduced, the main feature of which was improved performance due to the inclusion of JIT compilation in the Dalvik virtual machine, integration of the V8 JS engine into the standard browser, as well as multiple code optimizations. In the same version, the long-awaited opportunity to distribute the Internet using Wi-Fi (Wi-Fi hotspot) appeared, as well as a new home screen, in which a dock finally appeared, in the style of iOS. Six months later, the version of Android 2.3 Gingerbread was released, in which it was possible to celebrate the first Google steps to modernize the interface and bring it to a more acceptable form, as well as features such as SIP VoIP, improvements in power consumption and support for NFC chips.

2011: Android 3.0–4.0, Windows Phone 7.5 and iOS 5.0

2011 was the first year in the history of the “arms race” that did not bring any surprises in the field of mobile OS. Apple calmly and calmly continues to release new versions of smartphones, tablets and systematically update iOS. Microsoft signs a contract with Nokia and releases a minor update to Windows Phone 7.5 Mango. Google releases Android 3.0 Honeycomb - a truly major OS update, which nevertheless does not create a resonance due to its focus only on tablets and closed source code, which has seriously limited the distribution of the OS.

Android 3.0 was introduced on February 22 along with the Motorola Xoom tablet and was less a finished OS and more an attempt by Google to invade the tablet market that had been rediscovered by Apple. The third version of the OS was not widely used, but it worked well as a demonstration of what the next versions of Android would be like. The operating system has been seriously redesigned, including in terms of the user interface, which finally received its own memorable and incredibly effective minimalist style, called Holo (from holographic - holographic). The interface not only became pleasing to the eye, but also received the long-awaited smooth operation thanks to the use of GPU. Many other OS subsystems have also been redesigned, and the overall hardware requirements have increased significantly.

INFO

• Starting with the fourth version, iPhone OS began to bear the name iOS, and Apple had to license the new name from Cisco, which owned the rights to trademark IOS is the OS running in routers.
• Back in 2007, HTC created for Google a prototype of the Google Sooner smartphone with a full QWERTY keyboard under the screen, but the smartphone was never released to the market.
• Together with Android, Google created an alliance of mobile equipment manufacturers OHA (Open Handset Alliance), which today includes about fifty companies, including HTC, Motorola, Intel, LG, NVIDIA, Samsung and many others.

In the same year, Google released two more major OS updates, including versions 3.1 and 3.2, in which further work was carried out to unify the interface, optimize performance, and add support for various USB devices. However, their source code was also closed, and work on the “phone versions” of the system was essentially completed before the end of the year, when Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich was introduced.

The fourth version of Android was an ideological continuation of Honeycomb, but aimed at both tablets and smartphones. Ice Cream Sandwich included a completely redesigned application stack, a home screen rewritten from scratch, implemented according to all the rules of the new Holo UI, a new Roboto font, perfect for displaying text on screens with high density pixels, face unlock function (which can be easily deceived by showing the phone the owner’s photo), Wi-Fi function Direct for direct file transfer between devices, as well as long-awaited VPN support.

It was Ice Cream Sandwich that made Android not just “an iPhone alternative for the poor,” but a real competitor in the mobile OS market. Android 4.0 was functional, convenient, beautiful, easy to use and had features that its competitor did not have in principle.

In February, a new version of Windows Phone 7.5 was introduced, codenamed Mango, which integrated Internet Explorer 9, which has all the capabilities of the desktop version, expanded multitasking support for background applications, and added the ability to synchronize with Windows Live SkyDrive. Almost at the same time, Steve Ballmer announced an agreement with Nokia, according to which the latter would give preference to Windows Phone when choosing a mobile OS. In fact, this meant that Nokia was starting to produce smartphones only on Windows with all the ensuing consequences, in the form of stagnation and departure from the top five largest smartphone manufacturers due to users’ dislike for the “too unusual” and unpopular Windows Phone.

In October, Apple introduced iOS 5.0, which introduced functionality first proposed by Android developers, namely Notification Center, that is, a notification area accessible by sliding the status bar down. Also, the new version of the OS receives integration with iCloud, cloud service Apple, functionally similar to Dropbox, and the iMessage service, which allows you to send SMS using an Internet connection.

2012: Android 4.0–4.2, Windows Phone 8 and iOS 6.0

Windows 8 desktop in Metro style

The most significant event of 2012 was, of course, the release of Windows 8, with which Microsoft, unexpectedly for many, again made a serious leap forward. Although technically three operating systems were introduced, they are all now based on the same Windows NT codebase and are based on the Metro interface (which can be disabled in the desktop version). The API between systems is also now compatible, making app porting virtually a done deal, and tablet users essentially running a true desktop version of the system. This was very eloquently demonstrated by the example of the Windows Surface tablet presented at the same time with a detachable keyboard.

In fact, Windows 8 is a universal OS for all types of devices with one application repository, one interface, system for organizing menus and settings. An operating system in which the user will work with one software, regardless of the device, and will not get lost in the new interface. This is exactly what Apple and Google tried to achieve, but, oddly enough, Microsoft came first.

By the way, Google programmers also did not sit still and managed to release two incremental OS updates. In Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, they worked to increase productivity, interactive notifications appeared, and a smart desktop that learned to arrange elements on the screen in response to dragging a shortcut or widget. There was also an assistant Google Now, which suggested various data based on what the user had recently searched on Google, their location, and their activity on Google+. Version Android 4.2 Jelly Bean (yes, that's right) brought the ability to take spherical photos (similar to Google Street View), it added the long-awaited power control buttons in the notification panel, single interface for tablets and smartphones, as well as SELinux integration.

Apple, in turn, presented along with the iPhone 5 new version iOS with index 6.0, which, in fact, did not receive major changes, except for many minor improvements in built-in applications, integration with Facebook, as well as the removal of pre-installed YouTube and Google Maps applications (which, by the way, played a cruel joke on Apple, since how Apple's new vector maps turned out to be no good).

Conclusion

Five years is not a long time, but the world of mobile technology has changed dramatically during this period. It seems incredible that we once used smartphones that we couldn’t do automatic synchronization with Google, had a bunch of buttons and did not have a centralized source of applications. Now all this is in the past, and it is difficult to imagine how the world will change over the next five years.

The path of a small company and its leader from debt to global success.

In 2004, Andy Rubin approached his friend, Steve Perlman, with an urgent matter. Rubin's startup, Android, was going through hard times, and although Andy didn't want to ask for money again, the situation left him no choice.

The Android company, which developed mobile software for phones, had exhausted its financial resources, and other investors were in no hurry to invest.

Perlman agreed to provide the necessary funding in the near future.

Rubin said nervously, “Maybe things will get better soon.” The Android office rent was already overdue and the owner of the space was threatening eviction.

Perlman went to the bank, withdrew 10 thousand in hundred dollar bills and gave them to Rubin. The next day, he transferred an undisclosed amount to Android's account, which became seed funding for the project. In an interview with Business Insider, Perlman said:

“I did it because I believed in the idea and because I wanted to help Andy.”

After receiving the money, Rubin brought Android back to life. He found additional funding and moved the team to larger offices in Palo Alto, California, a renowned West Coast technology hub.

Today, Android is installed on approximately 85% of smartphones worldwide, while iPhone accounts for only 11%. The system is developing towards wristwatches, cars and televisions. It's not hard to imagine a time when Android will be everywhere, from ovens and thermostats to toothbrushes.

To capture 85% of the smartphone market, Rubin needed to take on two of the most important and profitable technology companies of its era: Microsoft and Apple. He had to go up against mobile operators that had already taken strategic positions in the communications market. He had to get phone makers to believe in his radical new vision.

Rubin was not alone. He had help from investors like Perlman and Google. The story of Android, based on a series of interviews Business Insider conducted with representatives from several of the companies at the very beginning, is as follows.

Impossible idea

During his 29-year career in Silicon Valley, Andy Rubin gained a reputation as a technical genius, a talented businessman and a dynamic leader.

Above all, Rubin is an entrepreneur who enjoys creating new things, whether it's writing code or making robots.

His engineering talent was evident while working in Building 44 on the Google campus. There, Rubin, in his free time, programmed a huge robotic arm to prepare coffee for him on command sent via SMS. The robot was installed on the second floor of Building 44 and, according to a former Google employee, it was large enough to lift cars.

In another project, Rubin flew a large remote-controlled helicopter on Google's front lawn. Samit Agarwal, former mobile product manager at Google, says:

“A giant $5,000 helicopter: Rubin tries to fly it, and it takes off and flips upside down. No, the helicopter did not explode, but simply flew apart in the literal sense of the word - right on the lawn of building 44."

Long before Rubin had the opportunity to spend his time working on giant robots at Google, he had to prove that he could implement his crazy ideas. One of the craziest ones was the creation of an open operating system for phones in the early 2000s.

At that time, mobile operators controlled everything from the marketing positioning of phones to their prices. Their power was complete - and, of course, the operators wanted to maintain this state of affairs. Of course, they were opposed to any other company - big or small - sharing the profits with them, which is why most people in the technology industry considered Rubin's idea unrealizable.

Unlike the various closed systems mobile operators, Android is an open source system. This means that anyone can use the original one for free. Android code on your devices, as well as modify and modify it.

Rubin initially developed Android for cameras, but failed to interest investors. So he teamed up with Chris White, who had previously designed the interface for WebTV, and Nick Sears, a former T-Mobile marketing executive with whom Rubin had worked on the Danger Hiptop, which became widely known as the T-Mobile Sidekick. Rubin explained that his idea was to create an open-source operating system for phones. Rich Miner, another Android co-founder and head of Google Ventures' East Coast investment team, joined in February 2004.

The man behind the idea

Andy Rubin

Rubin graduated from Utica College in upstate New York. Before Android, he had a long career in high technology, starting his career as a design engineer at Carl Zeiss Microscopy, which he held for about a year in 1986−1987.

After leaving Carl Zeiss, Rubin moved to Switzerland to work for a company creating robots. In 1989, while on vacation in the Cayman Islands, Rubin met an Apple engineer named Bill Coswell.

Rubin and Coswell barely knew each other, but Rubin was kind enough to offer to stay with him when Coswell had a fight with his girlfriend and was evicted from his beach cottage.

Coswell, in turn, offered Rubin a programmer position at Apple, which he held from 1989 to 1992. Rubin's love for robots was already evident during his time at Apple - according to The Verge, he then earned the nickname Android.

At this time, Rubin was very fond of jokes. He once got himself into trouble by reprogramming Apple's internal phone system so that then-Apple CEO John Sculley would call Rubin's colleagues and offer them shares.

Rubin and Perlman, now CEO of Artemis Networks, which develops alternatives to traditional mobile communications, later left Apple for General Magic, which spun off from Apple in the early 1990s. This company is known for creating the hand-held personal computer, which many consider the forerunner of modern smartphones.

Rubin worked at General Magic from 1995 to 1997, after which he left for WebTV, which was later acquired by Microsoft and changed its name to MSN TV. Perlman founded WebTV and followed Rubin to Microsoft. After leaving Microsoft in 1999, Rubin founded his own company, Danger, a startup that created the T-Mobile Sidekick phone.

What Rubin didn't know at the time was that he had made his first big breakthrough, which would later lead to his next startup being acquired by Google.

Google will call

Google co-founder Larry Page chats over lunch during the Clinton Global Initiative. New York, September 27, 2007

Back when many people thought the idea of ​​Android was crazy, Andy Rubin found support in Larry Page.

Google's co-founder, who was chief product officer at the time, learned about the Android project and asked an employee to contact Andy Rubin. This was perhaps the most important call in Rubin's life.

A Google representative told Rubin that the company had learned of his project and wanted to offer its “assistance.” Page had previously met Rubin during a conference at Stanford University.

Rubin and Sears arrived at Google's Mountain View headquarters in early January 2005. The meeting included Page and Google's second founder, Sergey Brin, as well as George Harik, a Google Ventures consultant and one of the company's first ten employees.

Page was wearing jeans and a T-shirt. Brin was barefoot, but he had a plastic Disney watch on his wrist. He sat next to two jars of candy and shoveled handfuls of them into his mouth.

Wasting no time, Page praised the work Rubin did and called the T-Mobile Sidekick one of the best phones he's ever seen.

Brin cracked a few jokes and asked Rubin at length about the technological side of the Sidekick.

Sergey Brin

The purpose of the meeting was not to praise Rubin - Brin also wanted to test him. He persistently asked about what could have been done differently to make the Sidekick even better, and why Rubin decided to create the phone the way he did.

This conversation was not a fight, but an exercise in problem solving together.

After the meeting, Rubin and Sears realized one thing: Google was interested in Android. But it was not clear why.

Was Google on their side? Did you develop Google own Mobile software and tried to study competitors in this way?

A month and a half later, when Google invited Rubin to the next meeting, Page's intentions became clearer. This time, all four Android founders were present, and they took the prototype with them to demonstrate. Harik got straight to the point: Google wanted to buy Android.

The founders were confused. Android needed money. Rubin, fellow Android co-founder Chris White, and Sears agreed to the deal, but Rich Miner—the fourth Android cofounder now at Google Ventures—wanted to keep the company small.

Android eventually agreed to Google's proposal; The transaction amount, according to some sources, was $50 million. Six months after the first meeting in January, the Android team moved to Google's headquarters, Googleplex. This happened on July 11, 2005.

"New Model"

The Android office in Building 44, where the team moved in April 2006 from Building 41, was different from the rest of Google's premises. The entrance to the secluded room was guarded by a robot from the TV series Battlestar Galactica, and the entire workspace was filled with strange devices, mysterious devices and robots. One of the first employees says:

“Android didn’t really want to become part of big Google. She tried to keep herself apart."

Typically, to improve quality, Google reviews every piece of code before it becomes part of the product. Android representatives opposed this idea and showed their code to the Google team only a couple of years later.

Another former Google employee says the first Android time existed within Google as an “island” with its own culture within a closed group of people. One of Rubin's former colleagues recalls:

“I didn’t realize that Rubin was creating a startup inside Google. That's what it really was."

Android figurine near the Google building

The Android team's strategy for the mobile market was also foreign to others at Google at the time. If you tried to explain the idea behind Android to them in 2005-2006, most likely the answer would be: “Well, good luck.”

Before Android, Google focused on installing its apps on other phones - those made by Nokia or Blackberry, for example. The idea behind Android was to create own system, owned by Google, to distribute services in addition to Google applications on other platforms. One of the employees says:

“You could call it the old model. And we were the new model.”

However, in order to begin distributing the Android operating system, Google it was necessary to design a phone that would work on it. And then find a mobile operator who would sell this phone. One of Rubin's former colleagues says:

“If it was just about going out and developing a phone, that’s one thing. This is what Apple did. We had to first create a phone, and then develop the infrastructure, find partners and allies.”

This meant partnering with component and smartphone manufacturers, as well as telecom operators. All in order to create a device that then seemed to break all the rules. One of the employees says:

“Rubin worked very skillfully with the manufacturers, which is rare. Very often, those who can speak the language of engineers cannot speak the language of directors at company board meetings. But Rubin could do both.”

You could say that the Google and Android teams created their first phone, the G1, as a proof of concept. They wanted to show potential partners what Android could do so that they would want to use it on their phones.

No carrier was willing to partner with Google when it launched the first Android phone in 2007. Verizon turned down the offer, Sprint wasn't interested, and AT&T didn't give any response. Even T-Mobile, which later agreed to release the G1, initially refused. The source states: “It wasn’t the best time in Android history».

G1, or HTC Dream

Operators wanted to sell content for phones and take all the profits for themselves, so they were against cooperation with other companies. They were intermediaries between manufacturers and buyers of mobile phones and were not going to give up their position.

The Android team knew the best bet at the time was T-Mobile. After six months of negotiations with T-Mobile, the operator backed down and announced that it did not want to make a deal with Google.

Rubin was one of the few Google employees who knew the T-Mobile deal had fallen through. Source says:

“He was disappointed, but Andy is not one to show his disappointment to everyone. There were still those who did not refuse us. Of course, he did not like the current situation, since he knew that it was ours. best option and that we spent a lot of time on it.”

But in the end, T-Mobile agreed to the deal, in large part because Nick Sears, one of the founders of Android, had previously worked in marketing at T-Mobile and was able to convince then-CEO Robert Dotson to agree.

Who changed the situation?

Google has finally overcome one of its biggest obstacles: it has found an operator ready to launch the first Android phone. But just at the time when Google was completing the finalization of the G1, another event happened: it presented its smartphone Apple company. In the book How Apple and Google Fought and Started a Revolution, Fred Vogelstein writes:

“[Rubin] was so shocked by what Jobs was showing that he told the driver to stop so he could watch the rest of the webcast. “Damn it,” he said to one of his colleagues sitting in the car with him. “It looks like we won’t be able to sell our phone.”

Rubin and the team changed the original plan and ended up creating a phone that was very different from the original idea. The first version of the G1 did not have a touchscreen, had a slide-out keyboard, and was aimed primarily at an audience that preferred BlackBerry. Apple was the first to make a big bet that the touchscreen would be the dominant method of interacting with computers for the foreseeable future. One employee recalls what the Apple smartphone launch looked like from inside Google:

“Everything has changed. We went back to the drawing board and rethought everything again: do we want to release this product without a touchscreen? We had to start from the beginning and make the decision again.”

Steve Jobs unveils the first iPhone

Another former Google employee describes the situation differently. According to Samit Agarwal, product manager, the company was developing features for touchscreen products, such as two-finger pinch-to-zoom, long before the iPhone was introduced to the public. Agarwal says:

“Everyone considers this moment epoch-making. The only thing I can think of that was a direct influence from Apple was the likelihood that users would want to move to a full touchscreen experience. Everyone knew that the future belonged to him. I think Apple has forced Android to accelerate in this direction."

"Anti-iPhone Crusade"

Although Android team had to retreat, its success, in a strange way, was facilitated by... the iPhone.

The iPhone was released exclusively for AT&T, and the hype surrounding the device's release was great enough to convince the world of the importance of this event.

According to one former employee of the Android team, by 2009 the growing success of the iPhone became a problem for the operator Verizon: the company at that time did not have a smartphone that could compete with the iPhone.

The iPhone has forced mobile phone manufacturers and telecom operators to take a stand. Android side.

Carriers viewed the iPhone as the biggest threat to their business model. In the case of the iPhone, the relationship with the buyer was in the sphere of influence of Apple - not AT&T. And customers switched from other carriers to AT&T to get the iPhone.

Therefore, with iPhone release It has become easier for the Android team to negotiate with operators.

Compared to the iPhone, Android phones now looked more tempting to carriers. Rubin and his team pitched Android as a platform for developers - not consumers - giving phone makers and carriers more confidence. One former employee of Google's Android division says:

“The main strategy back then was opposition. See what Android provides as a way to counteract iPhone capabilities make them lose influence. Let's find conditions so that operators are happy to help us in the crusade against the iPhone."

The control of operators was manifested in the fact that they could modify phones and add their own branding.

Android's first big victory

Motorola Droid

Although BlackBerry is at the bottom of the smartphone market today, it was a leading player in the early 2000s. The iPhone gained significant prominence immediately after its release in 2007, and Android was practically non-existent at the time.

Verizon clearly saw the threat, but did not find anything to counter it. Unlike Motorola.

Motorola has developed an Android phone. It was not as thin as the iPhone, rather large and had a slide-out keyboard. But at the time of its release in 2009, it was the best non-iPhone on the market.

Verizon has invested $100 million in marketing the Motorola Droid phone, which takes its name from George Lucas films. It didn't achieve the same success as the iPhone in terms of money, but it was good enough to bring Android to the world's attention.

Rubin's platform became mainstream and eventually pushed the iPhone to the margins. Jonathan Matus, a former Google employee who led the Android marketing team from 2007 to 2010, says:

“I remember the toasts and congratulations as the team huddled in the conference room, intently watching sales soar on the first day the device hit the market.”

"The Magic of Andy Rubin"

If you ask the question of what exactly causes the highest popularity that Android enjoys today, you will not get a clear answer. There are many components to this success, and one of them is that Rubin was able to negotiate with mobile operators in the early 2000s. He realized that they would not want to lose influence, and with the help of other members of the Google and Android team, he convinced them that his software would prevent this. At the same time, the power of operators was not undivided - for example, the first Droid was the result of the combined efforts of Motorola, Google and Verizon. This became evident in the final product. Source says:

“Using open source was important because it gave operators and manufacturers confidence that Google would not take over the entire Android platform.”

Ruby no longer has any influence on what happens with Android - Sundar Pichai is now responsible for Android, Chrome and most of Google's other major products. He's been working on Android for about two years now—in March 2013, Rubin left Google's Android division to return to his first love: robots. He ran Google's robotics department before leaving the company in 2014 to focus on his own startup incubator, which Rubin's LinkedIn profile calls Playground.global.

By nature, Rubin is an entrepreneur - he understands perfectly how to build a company and anticipate all the obstacles that may arise along the way. Android is the strongest proof of this.

Rubin is one of those who forced Google and other representatives of the industry wireless communication to believe that he and Android would be able to accomplish the impossible. One colleague who worked closely with Rubin says:

“And that’s the magic of Andy Rubin. It attracts talent and every member contributes. He has a very strong vision and ability to create a complete picture. It’s all about his skill, about some special level that allows him to attract talent and make others believe in the path he is on.”

Probably few people remember the first of the alleged iPhone killers - T-Mobile smartphone G1 based Android versions 1.0.

On September 23, 2008, in New York, Google, HTC and the cellular operator T-Mobile presented the world with the first smartphone running the Android operating system - T-Mobile G1. A month later, it could be bought in the US for $179 with a two-year contract, and a little later it began to be sold in Europe under the name HTC G1 and without operator lock.

This smartphone looks like this:

T-Mobile G1 was equipped Qualcomm processor with a clock frequency of 528 megahertz, a 3.2-inch screen with a resolution of 320×480 pixels, a 256 megabyte drive, 192 megabytes of RAM, a camera with a resolution of 3.2 megapixels, Wi-FI modules, GPS, Bluetooth 2.0, physical QWERTY keyboard and 1150 mAh battery. At the same time, the device weighed 158 grams and had dimensions of 117.7 × 55.7 × 17.1 mm.

At the time of release, the smartphone had 1,700 applications available from third party developers. Google has ported several applications to Android that were previously released for the iPhone, BlackBerry and Windows Mobile: YouTube, maps, mail, calendar and Gtalk. Data from native applications was already synchronized in the cloud via a Google account.

The G1 was called the iPhone killer, firstly because of the touch screen, and secondly because it was superior to the first Apple smartphone on several important parameters: higher camera resolution, time battery life and memory card support. But the iPhone was lighter, thinner and more beautiful.

The design of the G1 left much to be desired, and physical keyboard he needed it - Android didn’t have a screen display at that time. It's not clear why G1 turned out to be so scary. Take a look at Google's smartphone concepts from 2006, they're beautiful:

At that time, Google had no plans to use touch screens in smartphones. It was assumed that these devices would be controlled only using physical keys. iPhone release in 2007, he adjusted Google's plans.

The first Android smartphone could have been different. In February 2008, at the Mobile World Congress exhibition, prototypes of devices were demonstrated by several companies: ARM showed a smartphone with a completed case design, and NEC showed a board with a touch screen. Samsung was also developing developments at that time, but did not show them.