As part of its on-going trial with Oracle, some of Google’s original plans for a phone have surfaced.
To get right to it, the thing looks like a Blackberry. As the plans are from 2006, it makes sense. RIM was on top, and Google wanted to get in on their success.
Of course, when Steve Jobs announced the iPhone in January 2007, RIM’s hardware — dominated by cheap, plastic buttons — immediately looked dated.
It’s obvious Google had the foresight to at least move a step toward the iPhone, and not rely solely on physical buttons.
It seems Google couldn’t do anything but copy what others were doing. While Android still relies on physical buttons (on on-screen, static ones, in Ice Cream Sandwich), it’s clear their plans changed after the iPhone.