Not so much Windows Mobile, which never achieved serious market share. It was originally more planned to be a Blackberry competitor, and the early Android handset prototype concepts were all blackberry knockoffs with similar physical keyboard layouts.
It has always appeared though like you suggest, that the project quickly pivoted to candy bar touch phones following the release of the original iPhone. It's worthwhile to remember that the industry wasn't nearly as convinced that touching glass was the future of mobile typing in 2007 as it later became, and the sales volume of Blackberrys back then was often incorrectly cited as evidence to support the case against touch.
Yes, and they were going to position it against Windows Mobile.
When iOS was announced, Google scrambled to re-do the entire concept
Not so much Windows Mobile, which never achieved serious market share. It was originally more planned to be a Blackberry competitor, and the early Android handset prototype concepts were all blackberry knockoffs with similar physical keyboard layouts.
It has always appeared though like you suggest, that the project quickly pivoted to candy bar touch phones following the release of the original iPhone. It's worthwhile to remember that the industry wasn't nearly as convinced that touching glass was the future of mobile typing in 2007 as it later became, and the sales volume of Blackberrys back then was often incorrectly cited as evidence to support the case against touch.
> https://www.bgr.com/tech/iphone-vs-android-original-google-b...
I clean forgot about Blackberry :)
Android team ended up delaying Android release by a year: https://appleinsider.com/articles/13/12/19/googles-reaction-...
I still hate touch and would still buy a keyboard phone if anyone was making a good one