As someone who has been observing the tech-industry since 2004[1]. This is what I have to say, Android (as a startup) was supposed to be an open-source alternat

As someone who has been observing the tech-industry since 2004[1]. This is what I have to say, Android (as a startup) was supposed to be an open-source alternative to the Blackberry and the first Android device (made by HTC) was in a "Qwerty" form-factor. And the UI was (at the time) plain and among the most uninteresting that I'd ever seen[2]. To explain things clearly: [1] I've been a gadgeteer from the late 90's and owned a Nokia 5110 when it came out. I've been an early adopter since and had one of the first smartphones (which included a camera) from Nokia, the 7650. I started covering the industry as a freelancer and was with one of the leading print magazines on tech. [2] In regards to UIs on smartphones-pre iOS, most UIs were palatable and even interesting. The Nokia S60, Symbian UIQ, WM, etc were all different - none of them were copies, and some were just too intuitive once you were used to it (S60). So, when I used the Android emulator (the first device wasn't publicly released) I knew that it would never succeed with a mediocre UI. And in response to @brudgers, where is Handspring now? Nokia were THE innovators in the smartphone market, where are they now? Nokia had tons of services before any Google service was palatable - NGage, Nokia Store, Nokia Music (comes with Music later on), etc. WAP and career billing existed pre-Apple. And if you're talking about Apple's mobile browser, the Mobile webkit was first ported over to a mobile OS by Nokia themselves (it was open-sourced as well). Its all about the implementation. When a behemoth like Nokia could be brought down, just because they didn't anticipate Apple's all out assault. Apple had one of the best strategies one's which would've been known to other board members, are you going to say Nokia, MS, and other smartphone companies where complacent when Apple and later Android assaulted them? Google had a clear direction on how to move forward with their OS, and it wasn't until after the iPhone was launched (and when Schmidt was a board member) did that idea come into place. I'm not accusing Google of stealing Apple's plans but the data is all out for you to parse and make sense of. And since we have many entrepreneurs and businessmen here, let me just say that business plans are as important as the product itself, even more so in a few sectors. I'm not prejudiced, but I make sense of what I can.