The gloves have emphatically come off ..... dozens of suits and countersuits around the world involving these two smartphone giants ...... The broad themes of the accusations on each side are well known by now. Apple complains Samsung is a copycat, stealing the product designs and user-experience programming in the iPhone and later the iPad. Samsung replies that Apple is claiming ownership for ideas it may have modified, but certainly did not invent. ...... In February 2006, before the claimed iPhone design was conceived of,Apple executive Tony Fadell circulated a news article that contained an interview of a Sony designer to Steve Jobs, Jonathan Ive and others. In the article, the Sony designer discussed Sony portable electronic device designs that lacked excessive ornamentation such as buttons, fit in the hand, were square with a screen and had corners [which] have been rounded out. Ex. 18(DX 649). Immediately after this article was circulated internally, Apple industrial designer Shin Nishibori was directed to prepare a Sony-like design for an Apple phone and had CAD drawings and a three-dimensional model prepared...... As Mr. Nishibori has confirmed, his Sony-style design changed the direction of the project that yielded the final iPhone designs. ...... When Apple was developing its campaign to promote the first iPhone, it considered – and rejected – advertisements that touted alleged Apple ―firsts with the iPhone. As one Apple employee explained to an overly exuberant Apple marketer, I don‘t know how many things we can come up with that you can legitimately claim we did first. Certainly we have the first successful versions of many features, but that‘s different than launching something to market first.‖ See Ex. 4 (DX 578). In this vein, the employee methodically explained that Palm, Nokia and others had first invented the iPhone‘s most prominent features.
The beauty of going public and going big is, if you are a truly visionary company, you can start zapping up small startups that might fit into your vision. Android was not Google's in-house creation.
Android: Versions
Cupcake was a phase not a release.
Android: Functionality
It is revolutionizing the mobile space, and it is spilling over into the Netbook space.
Many have talked of 2009 as being Android's year. I guess we will just have to watch the drama unfold and see if Android will truly see a 900% growth. Even the naysayers say 400%. Once it takes off, the growth rate might hit four figures. Why not?
The Android Vision
There is openness and there is mobility. Those two values stand at the core of the vision.
Android Future: Let A Thousand Flowers Bloom
Once the genie is out of the bottle, who knows what all that will lead up to. This is the new wild, wild west.
Open Handset Alliancebuilt to be truly open ...... an application can call upon any of the phone's core functionality such as making calls, sending text messages, or using the camera, allowing developers to create richer and more cohesive experiences for users. Android is built on the open Linux Kernel........ Android is open source; it can be liberally extended to incorporate new cutting edge technologies as they emerge. ...... Android does not differentiate between the phone's core applications and third-party applications. .... a developer can combine information from the web with data on an individual's mobile phone ...... allows devices to communicate with one another enabling rich peer-to-peer social applications. Welcome (Android Open Source Project)Android is the first free, open source, and fully customizable mobile platform. ...contains a rich set of APIs that allows third-party developers to develop great applications.
Android Company Profile Google Buys Android for Its Mobile ArsenalThe search giant quietly acquires the startup, netting possibly a key player in its push into wireless, "the next frontier in search" ........ 22-month-old startup .... brings to Google a wealth of talent, including co-founder Andy Rubin, who previously started mobile-device maker Danger Inc. ..... In a 2003 interview with BusinessWeek, just two months before incorporating Android, Rubin said there was tremendous potential in developing smarter mobile devices that are more aware of its owner's location and preferences. ....... Rubin isn't the only well-known Silicon Valley veteran joining Google via Android. Others coming over include Andy McFadden, who worked with Rubin at WebTV before helping develop the all-in-one set-top box for Moxi Digital; Richard Miner, former vice-president of technology and innovation at telecom outfit Orange before joining Android; and Chris White, who spearheaded the design and interface for WebTV in the late 1990s, before helping to found Android. Android (1982) Android Developers Blog: Android Market: a user-driven content ... Android -- Engadget Mobile you can now part with some cash and cobble together a bunch of modules to create a do-it-yourself Android phone called FLOW Android News - Android Google Phone Forums Official Google Blog: Where's my Gphone?Posted by Andy Rubin, Director of Mobile Platforms ...... Despite all of the very interesting speculation over the last few months, we're not announcing a Gphone. However, we think what we are announcing -- the Open Handset Alliance and Android -- is more significant and ambitious than a single phone. .......... new applications and new capabilities we can’t imagine today. ....... all of the software to run a mobile phone, but without the proprietary obstacles that have hindered mobile innovation ...... the Open Handset Alliance, which consists of more than 30 technology and mobile leaders including Motorola, Qualcomm, HTC and T-Mobile. Through deep partnerships with carriers, device manufacturers, developers, and others, we hope to enable an open ecosystem for the mobile world by creating a standard, open mobile software platform. .......... partnerships with handset manufacturers and mobile operators around the world. ....... some of our partners are targeting the second half of 2008 to ship phones based on the Android platform
Analysts clash over android growth figures - The Inquirer a whopping 900 per cent ...... Apple's Iphone operating system will be the next fastest-growing smartphone OS in 2009, citing a predicted 79 per cent growth rate. ........ buffed up support from telco operators, developers and retailers alike ....... seeping through Europe and Asia ...... puts Android "in a good position to become a top-tier player in smartphones over the next two to three years." ....... Android based smartphone shipments will perk up dramatically once Motorola, HTC, Samsung and T-Mobile have all released their promised devices ......... "IDC expects Android to grow around 420 per cent to a total of 3.6m units worldwide in 2009" ........ the industry is looking for a way to alleviate Symbian - and by proxy, Nokia - dominance ........ IDC believes the market will consolidate around six major operating systems over the next three years, namely Symbian, Blackberry OS, Windows Mobile, Mac OS X, Android and Linux. Android: Google's Dream, Apple's Nightmare? - TIMEwhile it won't look as sleek as the iPhone, it promises to give mobile-phone users a lot more freedom and flexibility. ...... run multiple applications at once and more easily share contacts and data among them ....... mobile-phone users will finally be able to cut and paste text in e-mails — a function that's frustratingly absent on the iPhone. ......... The sweetest part of the Dream is the Android Market — Google's answer to the Apple App Store. ........ at launch all Android Market apps will be free. ...... Android is better than the iPhone at running multiple programs at once ........ While Apple takes a top-down approach to app development — the company must approve every program that makes it into its App Store — Google will allow creators to upload any application to the Android Market without its review. ........ users will not be limited to a single phone or carrier for long. ........ Google is inviting all carriers to develop handsets for the platform ..... other features are expected to go toe-to-toe with the iPhone, including built-in GPS, a tilt sensor for gaming and a camera .....no one can turn on the hype machine quite as well as Steve Jobs