In the latest bit of interesting information about the history of the development of Android, as is being revealed during the current Apple v. Samsung trial, we get confirmation that Android was originally designed for phones with a physical keyboard. This should probably not come as a surprise as Android was being developed at a time when Blackberry devices ruled the corporate smartphone market. Apple probably considers this to be helpful in their claim that Android and Samsung were copying Apple’s iPhone. However, the same information suggests the Android team had already contemplated a future where touchscreens were popular.
According to the information, the Android team was communicating to different manufacturers in 2006:
“Touchscreens will not be supported. The product was designed with the presence of discrete physical buttons as an assumption. However, there is nothing fundamental in the products [sic] architecture that prevents the support of touchscreens in the future.”This information is part of a document titled “Android Project Software Functional Requirements” that also revealed Google was planning to use Microsoft’s FAT 32 filesystem. The early specifications also indicated Android would support widgets and third-party applications.
