The first Android phone, the T-Mobile G1, was announced 10 years ago today



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On this fateful day ten years ago, Google, T-Mobile and HTC have joined forces to announce the T-Mobile G1. It would then be launched internationally under the name of HTC Dream, but this material was the first way consumers could experience the Android platform. The G1 was far from perfect, even by the standards of the day. At the same time, it offered an open and customizable experience, unlike the iPhone. It was the beginning of something big.

T-Mobile G1 was Tmo's 3G network launch device, which only worked in a few markets at the time. The carrier sold it for $ 179 on a 2 year contract or $ 399 without one. Key features include native apps for Gmail and Maps, as well as music downloads via Amazon. The Android Market was preinstalled, but the support for the application was, to say the least, limited. Google has not received any paid technical support before the beginning of the year 2009.

At the launch of the G1, Apple's iPhone was already in its second generation. This device was reshaping the mobile phone industry as Apple operated circles around established players such as RIM (later Blackberry). Everyone was trying to find a way to compete with the iPhone. For RIM, it was the Blackberry Storm, which was an absolute disaster. This phone has tried to copy the iPhone in every sense of the word, but the G1 has forged its own way to try to resolve some complaints with the Apple device.

At the announcement, Andy Rubin, director of Android, pointed out that Android was different because its openness was integrated. It was so open that the initial (inadvertently) version was endowed with universal root access. Oops. Even in the era of Android 1.0, you could customize your home screen with widgets, icons and wallpapers. The iPhone circa 2008 still did not have multitasking, but the G1 could leave applications in the background. The Web was not very optimized for touchscreen phones at the time, and it was frustrating to use tiny text links with the iPhone. The G1 solution was a trackball, which would be a mainstay of Android devices for years to come.

The G1 has also moved away from the iPhone with a sliding keyboard (Android 1.0 does not even have to have a touch keyboard). The G1 was far from the first phone to have a keyboard, which was actually quite common for Blackberry and WinMo devices, but Android was more modern than these platforms. The iPhone took a lot of heat for its touch keyboard, and Google was taking a stand for the physical buttons. The G1 had a five rows keyboard with well-spaced keys. It was much faster to enter text than the first touch version of the iPhone, even though it did not travel much.

Some of the features that we know and love about Android have existed at launch on the G1. For example, the aforementioned widgets. There were not many pre-loaded on the G1, and the developers could not do it themselves. However, you can recognize the same basic features ten years later. The G1 also had a nuance of notification. It was a little different from today 's nuance, and the functionality was rudimentary, but it was better than what you had on the 2008 iPhone. The G1 n & rsquo; Also had no headphone jack. Talk about a vision of the future, is not it? To use your 3.5mm headset, you need to connect an adapter for the USB EXT port.

The G1 was the only Android phone in the world until the HTC Magic (aka the T-Mobile MyTouch 3G) was launched the following year. With only these two phones, things looked bleak in mid-2009, but an influx of phones hit the market down. The flood of Android devices still has not calmed all those years and it all started with the G1.

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