Reference please.
My understanding is that Android was always intended to be hardware independent, including supporting touchscreen "before iPhone" came out. The claims of a sudden change in direction are revisionist history to suit some people's agendas,
http://www.osnews.com/story/25264/Did_Android_Really_Look_Li...
I am grateful for the competition between both groups (Android and IOS). This competition forces organizations to compete on merit, or the market votes with its feet.
You just gave me my reference. The video in that article was released almost a year after the iPhone. It's pretty obvious that the touch UI in it is also a very early version of the Android we have today. Just one glaring example is how the application menus are navigated by using the hardware keys on the device and not by touch. The touch targets are tiny. The UI is embarrassingly laggy. It probably isn't a coincidence that these BlackBerry-style Android devices never actually got released, either.
I have no "agenda". I'm an Android developer and I've owned one Apple device in my lifetime (and have no plans to buy new ones ever because of their business practices). I own multiple Android devices. I just realize that the iPhone truly did change touch devices forever because the UI was something new.
I own five Apple devices, and no Android devices :)
From the article,
QUOTE
The interesting thing here is that the release of the SDK with support for touch and large screens, as well as the release of this video and hardware reference design took place one month before the infamous photograph of the BlackBerry-esque device. This means that Google wasn't working with just one prototype, but several, which really shouldn't be a surprise at all, if you think about what Google wanted Android to be.
Android was never intended to run on just one form factor. Android runs on everything from candybar touch screen phones to qwerty-phones, and everything in between. Heck, there was a race to get Android running on laptops, and even before Android was well and ready for it, it was dumped on tablets.
UNQUOTE
Emphasis on blackberry and touchscreen appearing at the same time, and that Android was always intended to be form factor independent.
How does this equate to "in 2005, Android was blackberry"? Reference please.
Well, I certainly can't say that as a fact since only the Android team would know the truth. However, from the video in question it's pretty obvious that if a touch-screen version of Android was in development at the same time in 2005, the UI was not anything like the touch UI we have on Android or iPhone today. It was the same unintuitive, clunky and slow trash we had on resistive screens for ages.
That is where the "iPhone ripoff" claim comes in. Ripoff is too strong of a word, but it certainly had a huge influence on the direction of Android.
I am grateful for the competition between both groups (Android and IOS). This competition forces organizations to compete on merit, or the market votes with its feet.