In the ongoing Google versus Oracle courtroom saga, new documents have emerged detailing an early prototype for an Android smartphone. These images and specs were presented to T-Mobile back in 2006. Thank god Google went back to the drawing board.
In 2006, two years before the first commercial Android phone, the Blackberry was the best thing out there, so it makes sense that Google’s early design for an Android phone had a physical QWERTY keyboard and the same squat, round-cornered design. The specs are hazy, The Verge reports:
Exact specs for those first concepts aren’t detailed, but Google does spell out what it had in mind for the least common denominator across Android devices. An ARMv9 processor of at least 200MHz, GSM (3G preferred), 64MB of RAM and ROM, miniSD (yes, mini, not micro) external storage, a 2-megapixel camera with a dedicated shutter button, USB support, Bluetooth 1.2, and a QVGA display with at least 16-bit colour support.
According to the report, Google wanted the phone to be out by mid 2007. The T-Mobile G1, the first Android phone, wasn’t available until late 2008. We wouldn’t be surprised if the iPhone sent Google back to the woodshed. [The Verge]