The first Google Android phone competed with the original iPhone as earlier brands could never

Google's first Android phone turned 10 yesterday. It's hard to believe that the phone that triggered everything, the HTC Dream – called the T-Mobile G1 in the United States – suffered such a ugly, awkward start. But even from the beginning, it was clear that this brand new platform could eclipse the Apple iPhone in a way that the big brands of the moment – BlackBerry, Palm, Nokia and Windows Mobile – could not.

Google announced the HTC Dream on September 23, 2008, a year after Apple's first-generation iPhone revolutionized what a smartphone was. If the strength of the iPhone lies in its simple and clear design and intuitive layout, the very first Android phone has brought personality and the ability to personalize your experience. Today, more than 85% of the world's phones run on Android.

This is a surprising achievement when we consider that the T-Mobile G1 / HTC Dream did not have the beautiful appearance and smoothness of the iPhone. A pivoting physical keyboard frustrated us with flat keys; a large projecting chin prevented from beating; the basics like a virtual keyboard and a headphone jack were not found. But this heavy and heavy device has left an indelible mark in the world of smartphones and allowed us to reach our current level.

The HTC Dream / T-Mobile G1 also had some important features that the iPhone of the day – the iPhone 3G, running "iPhone OS 2" – missing: Features like a better camera and copy / paste. The power of Google's platform. Most importantly, the G1 has proven that a software company can support a successful cell phone. This is how this ugly duckling made his mark.

This story was published on September 23, 2018 and was last updated on September 24.

1. Proof that personalization is king

The G1 is immediately distinguished from the first iPhone by allowing a deep ability to change and perfect the way you used the phone. For the more ambitious, it could mean writing their own applications. But for most people, tweaking the G1 's home screen to their liking was a good start and an essential part of Android' s identity. Between application launchers, icon packs, wallpapers, widgets and folders, what you saw did not have to be what you had.

The iPhone caught up later – now you can change the background of the welcome screen and rearrange applications in folders – but the G1 showed that customizing smartphones was very important (and in a much simpler way than Windows Mobile).

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It's not just individuals who personalize their Android phones. The open platform of Android also meant that smartphone manufacturers could use the basic Android operating system and build their own look with themes, launchers and even additional applications and features.

Of course, an open system had a disadvantage. Fragmentation, that elephant still hidden in the Android room, later became a hindrance to Android's quick updates, especially as manufacturers needed to tweak updates to fit them. to their needs. skins.

The consumer appetite for the type of customization offered by Android was evident from the very first G1, and helped make Android such a success today.

2. App market from the start

the iTunes App Store debuts a few months ago the G1, but the HTC phone has once again hit a blow on Apple's 2007 smartphone launch by launching with its application ecosystem already in place.

The Android Market (which will later become Google Play) meant that G1 owners did not have to wait to do more with their phones, whether it was to play games, shop or simply stay organized. Even though it was clear that apps were the future of phones and that G1 was ready.

The nature of the Android Market had its advantages and disadvantages. By adopting a more flexible validation and approval process than Apple's, Google's App Store allowed for a greater choice of apps and was more user-friendly for developers of all levels.

In contrast, less quality control meant that you were more likely to bite into lemons of apps and that the apps were not always compliant with every Android update.

3. The G1 has multiplied the power of Google in the pocket

As the first Android device, the T-Mobile G1 has allowed Google to make you even more dependent on its online tools.

The strength of the iPhone was to work with other Apple hardware. the first iPhone was basically the most magical iPod ever made by Apple, because there were also calls and apps that you could also find on Mac.

Google has adopted the opposite approach by focusing on the ecosystem of the already strong and ever-expanding software empire of Google. Here, you had the power of Google Search in your pocket, in addition to the Gmail application and Google Maps. Yes, much of this data was also available on the iPhone – Google Maps was the iPhone's default mapping app far inferior Apple Maps in 2012 – but with Android, everything was integrated and tightly integrated. If you've ever used Google tools, Android was a no-brainer.

For Google, this meant you had to rely on Google products at home, at work and now everywhere in between.

4. It sets the precedent for several designs

Although the first Android phone has QWERTY keyboard and a lot of buttons, the choice has always been the plan.

The G1's job was to show buyers how a "Google phone" would work, and give app developers something they could have their say in, so that the next Android phones would have a stronger foundation. .

Not long after, the curious of Android could see the phones of Motorola, Samsung, LG and even more devices from HTC. This small army of Androids paraded with screens of different sizes, dimensions, camera capabilities, you name it.

But without this first Android phone to place the flag, and to test the interest of buyers, we may have never seen the Motorola Droid, marketed as a real alternative for iPhone; the HTC Evo 4G (first 4G phone in the United States); the first Samsung Galaxy Note with its S Pen; or the Google Pixel 3 we expect to see October 9th.

5. The magic of HTC paved the way for Pixel

Before the T-Mobile G1, HTC was a small Taiwanese manufacturer striving to become a global brand among giants such as Samsung and Motorola.

The G1 gave HTC the opportunity to come out and the beginning of a strong relationship between the company and Google. Then came the Google Ion / T-Mobile MyTouch 3G (the second Android phone), the HTC Hero (the first Android CDMA handset) and the HTC Droid Eris (the first Android phone with pinch-to-zoom).

But it was really with the Nexus One in 2010, HTC reached its Android speed. A "pure" Android phone, it quickly received Android updates and offered a welcome alternative to the manufacturer's common skins. Since then, HTC has continued to produce some of the best Android devices, like the first Pixel phone in 2016. This year, Google even paid $ 1.1 billion to hire HTC engineers for everything that comes after.

6. A real rival Apple has become the only rival Apple

The most significant effect of the HTC Dream / T-Mobile G1 is perhaps its role as a fierce rival of the iPhone. Google and Apple, headquartered just 11 miles from each other in Silicon Valley, were two of the most powerful and exciting technology companies in the world.

Apple and Google were also newcomers to an already crowded telephone area populated by BlackBerry, Nokia (Symbian OS) and Windows Mobile Devices on the end "smart" and flip or candybar phones on the low end. ("Special phones" were an intermediate layer entirely.)

The popularity of the iPhone has exploded and veteran platforms have not been able to keep up. But then, Android has arrived. It was fresh, it was new, and it had considerable resources from Google to counter Apple as a future phone platform.

The T-Mobile G1 has also pushed Apple to do better, bringing parity of features to later iPhones, such as a better camera, cards with detailed instructions and … copy / paste. Google has been so successful, that Android, today, is not just competing with the iPhone – it's the only Rival iPhone left.

And it all started with this fun little phone.

Android turns 10: Google's fierce rival for the iPhone has had a stumbling stumbling point

The T-Mobile G1 was ugly, and I liked it