How the original iPhone forced Google to completely rebuild Android

[techbeck]

So wait, did or did they not copy? I'm seeing very conflicting responses.

Google went back to the drawing board after the first iPhone was released and totally changed their design. Which looked nothing like the iPhone hardware or software. It is really Samsung has been in trouble the most for copying the iPhone which Google has no part of. Originally Google was going after BlackBerry since BB was big back then. Apple really shook things up when they released the iPhone.

[GodsMercyKings]

 

Google went back to the drawing board after the first iPhone was released and totally changed their design. Which looked nothing like the iPhone hardware or software. It is really Samsung has been in trouble the most for copying the iPhone which Google has no part of.

Wow. Looks nothing like iPhone? Well let's see. This dock you see at the bottom comes from iOS:

http://www.idevice.ro/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/iOS-7-Dock-Theme.jpg

iOS got it from the Mac:

http://rocketdock.com/images/screenshots/mac-dock-1.2.1-new-preview.png

Which got it from NextSTEP:

http://members.shaw.ca/guis/nextstep3/terminal.png

All of which operated under Steve Jobs. The Newton also featured the dock. Now, pre-Android did not feature it. Yet, a few iterations later, it ended up with the same dock. This was something exclusive to Apple and Steve Jobs. How did it end up in Android? Was Steve Jobs hired as an outside consultant?

[TAZMINATOR]

But Google didn't copy them.  Google isn't a hardware company.  Now if HTC decided to change the look and design of their first G1 Android phone that was entirely up to them.  Trying to compare a hardware company (Apple) to a software company (Google) is poor at best.  Not that these facts ever stop Apple fanboys from distorting them horribly like the linked article.

 

That is right about Google isn't a hardware company but Google can tell the companies what to do...  for example, I want that, I want this, blah blah blah... then they test the phone and see if they like the design... if so, Google give the company an OK to start process the production line.

 

For example, I drive by your house and I like it... and I call my contractor and ask him to build me a house just like yours... but in different materials and colors.

[McKay]

 

 

If you watch their showoff video, Android was intended to go on a variety of handsets. That left-side prototype was only one form factor. Watch the video they show off both their prototypes, the first one being the one you listed.

 

[+jamesyfx Subscriber²]

The iPhone definitely shook things up in the mobile phone world. Before that was released most people were still using basic phones like flip phones and sliding phones. I remember travelling to America a few years before the iPhone took hold and it was like going back 5 years in mobile technology compared to the UK. Nobody seemed interested in getting the latest and greatest.. Now it's a totally different story. 

[adrynalyne]

  Wow. Looks nothing like iPhone? Well let's see. This dock you see at the bottom comes from iOS:

http://www.idevice.ro/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/iOS-7-Dock-Theme.jpg

iOS got it from the Mac:

http://rocketdock.com/images/screenshots/mac-dock-1.2.1-new-preview.png

Which got it from NextSTEP:

http://members.shaw.ca/guis/nextstep3/terminal.png

All of which operated under Steve Jobs. The Newton also featured the dock. Now, pre-Android did not feature it. Yet, a few iterations later, it ended up with the same dock. This was something exclusive to Apple and Steve Jobs. How did it end up in Android? Was Steve Jobs hired as an outside consultant?

Yeah and swipe to unlock was around longer than Apple, and yet who thinks they invented it???

 

Could it be that everyone is inspired by something that already exists?

 

Weird!

[techbeck]

  Wow. Looks nothing like iPhone? Well let's see. This dock you see at the bottom comes from iOS:

http://www.idevice.ro/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/iOS-7-Dock-Theme.jpg

Are you really using icons aligned in a grid as an argument? Looks nothing like what Google implemented. Hell, the first Android phone released was the G1. The G1 didnt even have those icons aligned like Apples in the dock. Were completely different.  It wasnt until ICS that Google put a 4 icon dock on the bottom.  Even then it was different.  Different icons and different function/features. All Google did was copy the idea, which you are allowed to do. Copy an idea and improve on it as long as no laws are being broken. Hence the reason Samsung got in big trouble.

 

So again, looks nothing like the iPhone and doesnt function the same either.

[Brian M. Veteran]

One thing's for sure - if the iPhone wasn't released back in 2007 - nobody would be holding the phone they are right now. The combination of an incredibly responsive touch screen and very intuitive software (at the time) meant it was a game changer.

Now, who care's who copies who. The market wants iPhone-like design as a whole, so that's what's happening. Same with TVs (most TVs these days look very similar and have similar interfaces). It's the way of life. The main point is that we're all, whether it's an iPhone, Android or some other phone, using a much better phone than we would be if Apple didn't shake up the industry the way it did back in 2007.

[GodsMercyKings]

Are you really using icons aligned in a grid as an argument? Looks nothing like what Google implemented. Hell, the first Android phone released was the G1. The G1 didnt even have those icons aligned like Apples in the dock. Were completely different.  It wasnt until ICS that Google put a 4 icon dock on the bottom.  Even then it was different.  Different icons and different function/features. All Google did was copy the idea, which you are allowed to do. Copy an idea and improve on it as long as no laws are being broken. Hence the reason Samsung got in big trouble.

 

So again, looks nothing like the iPhone and doesnt function the same either.

So what you're saying is that this: http://i.stack.imgur.com/YSiGf.jpg "looks nothing like" this: http://wpuploads.appadvice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/IMG_0967-copy.png

They don't function the same? They both exist for the very same reason. Out of the hundreds of different ways one could design a UI, android just so happened to look awfully similar to iOSes implementation after it was said they needed to "start over" after the iPhone unveil?

[techbeck]

So what you're saying is that this: http://i.stack.imgur.com/YSiGf.jpg "looks nothing like" this: http://wpuploads.appadvice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/IMG_0967-copy.png

Different icons and arrangement. And as far as I know, icons in a grid existed before Apple and they didnt invent that.

They don't function the same? They both exist for the very same reason. Out of the hundreds of different ways one could design a UI, android just so happened to look awfully similar to iOSes implementation?

Can you change the icons on the iPhone? Can you stack icons and create folders on the iPhone? The dock on Android can do more than the dock on the iPhone. So yea, they do not function the same at all.

[sanctified Veteran]

Can you stack icons and create folders on the iPhone?

 

Emmm, yes...  :huh:

[GodsMercyKings]

 

Different icons and arrangement. And as far as I know, icons in a grid existed before Apple and they didnt invent that.

Can you change the icons on the iPhone? Can you stack icons and create folders on the iPhone? The dock on Android can do more than the dock on the iPhone. So yea, they do not function the same at all.

Are you purposely being ignorant to what I'm saying? These are icons are aligned into a single dock, not a grid. Apple wouldn't have been granted patent #7,434,177 if prior art were presented. And it doesn't matter what Android does with the dock afterwards. The point is that they blatantly copied it from iOS. What they choose to do with it afterwards is irrelevant. I don't see how one could purposely deny this truth.

[techbeck]

Emmm, yes...  :huh:

Before Android did it?

[techbeck]

 Are you purposely being ignorant to what I'm saying? These are icons are aligned into a single dock, not a grid. Apple wouldn't have been granted patent #7,434,177 if prior art were presented. And it doesn't matter what Android does with the dock afterwards. The point is that they blatantly copied it from iOS. What they choose to do with it afterwards is irrelevant. I don't see how one could purposely deny this truth.

They look different, period. We are going to have to agree to disagree. And if you have to resort to calling me ignorant to prove a point, then I am through.

[sanctified Veteran]

Before Android did it?

 

I don't know man. Honestly I don't follow this ridiculous race. But you asked in present tense.

[GodsMercyKings]

 

They look different, period. We are going to have to agree to disagree. And if you have to resort to calling me ignorant to prove a point, then I am through.

What lol? I am not agreeing to disagree. You're just wrong. Any five year old can see they are very similar to one another.

[f0rk_b0mb]

One thing's for sure - if the iPhone wasn't released back in 2007 - nobody would be holding the phone they are right now. The combination of an incredibly responsive touch screen and very intuitive software (at the time) meant it was a game changer.

Now, who care's who copies who. The market wants iPhone-like design as a whole, so that's what's happening. Same with TVs (most TVs these days look very similar and have similar interfaces). It's the way of life. The main point is that we're all, whether it's an iPhone, Android or some other phone, using a much better phone than we would be if Apple didn't shake up the industry the way it did back in 2007.

 

^^THIS!!!

[techbeck]

 

What lol? I am not agreeing to disagree. You're just wrong. Any five year old can see they are very similar to one another.

Your opinion. There are many that would disagree with you. All a dock is is a set of icons lined up in a horizontal grid. Which existed before apple. Just because of its put at the bottom of the screen... Docked... Doesn't make it anything special. Apple copied an idea and improved on it making it look and act different... like Google.

Anyway, I will agree to disagree then. This is getting no where. Have a good evening.

[sanctified Veteran]

  What lol? I am not agreeing to disagree. You're just wrong. Any five year old can see they are very similar to one another.

 

In all fairness almost all the GUI metaphors look similar. You cant experiment too much because human perception is quite straightforward about interaction. The most radical GUI departures in history have failed or at least were received with heavy criticism because of this.

 

This is not a company copying a GUI, it's a company reaching the same conclusions. This can happen.

[Growled Member]

One thing's for sure - if the iPhone wasn't released back in 2007 - nobody would be holding the phone they are right now. The combination of an incredibly responsive touch screen and very intuitive software (at the time) meant it was a game changer.

 

That is true. And Apple is still leading the way and taking Google to school after all this time.

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

 It is how they envisioned Android at the beginning: as a Blackberry clone

 

You need to do your research.  It was originally designed not for phones so much as an embedded system for devices like cameras.

[notuptome2004]

I recall a certain Steve Jobs claiming they invented multitouch too....

 

Hell no, they copied it, or were at the very least inspired by other's work...

 

 

 

No he and or Apple never claimed they made  or well invented  multi-tocuh   they were how ever the very first  Phone of any kind and or any mobile small device to use Multi-touch technology   They never ones  claimed anything  

[adrynalyne]

No he and or Apple never claimed they made  or well invented  multi-tocuh   they were how ever the very first  Phone of any kind and or any mobile small device to use Multi-touch technology   They never ones  claimed anything  

Jobs most certainly did.

 

 

http://www.ted.com/talks/kirby_ferguson_embrace_the_remix.html

 

5:39

 

Edit:

 

And proof they did not invent it:

 

http://www.billbuxton.com/multitouchOverview.html

[techbeck]

No he and or Apple never claimed they made  or well invented  multi-tocuh   they were how ever the very first  Phone of any kind and or any mobile small device to use Multi-touch technology   They never ones  claimed anything  

 

Sure they have and it is well known they did.

 

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2010/03/patently_stupid.html

 

The quote was....

 

"We have invented a new technology called 'multi-touch' which is phenomenal," Jobs said. "It works like magic."

 

[bobeck]

Sure they have and it is well known they did.

 

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2010/03/patently_stupid.html

 

The quote was....

In all fairness it is a lot of work to remember all the BS claims that have come from apple over the years :D