Google: Android Was Started Way Before The iPhone

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Google: Android Was Started Way Before The iPhone

Illustration by Daniel Adel - http://flic.kr/p/7KwQ7z

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs could get a little ticked-off when speaking about Android. At one point, Jobs told biographer Walter Isaacson: "I'm going to destroy Android, because it's a stolen product. I'm willing to go thermonuclear war on this." Well, Google certainly knows how to push Steve's buttons. The latest example: Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of the Mountain View, Calif. company, says Android was way out ahead of the iPhone – sort of. Kind of. Well, pretty close, okay?

To to reporters in South Korea (home of Apple rival and courtroom dance partner Samsung), Schmidt said: "I think most people would agree Google is a great innovator and I would also point out that the Android effort started before the iPhone effort."

Ah, that depends.

Google acquired Andy Rubin's Android Inc. in 2005, but the first phone based on the software didn't appear until 2008 – or one year after the iPhone appeared. If the Android 'effort' began in 2003, when it was but a glimmer in Rubin's eye, Google is right. Or, maybe the 'effort' began when Google snapped up the company. But if the effort happened when people outside of Rubin or Google knew much about Android, then the software was late to the party.

And speaking of parties, Schmidt denied reports of an icy relationship between himself and Jobs following the then Google CEO resigning from Apple's board of directors. In fact, Schmidt was even invited to private dinners and other Apple shindigs. "We had adult conversations…at the beginning and the end," he countered. Now knowing Jobs could verbally blast both friends and enemies (usually with colorful language requiring the heavy use of **** and %@$!), one can only guess just how 'adult' those talks were.