Click to Skip Ad
Closing in...

From BlackBerry clone to iPhone clone to innovator: A visual history of Android

Published Jun 16th, 2014 10:41AM EDT
Android Visual History
Image: Ars Technica

If you buy through a BGR link, we may earn an affiliate commission, helping support our expert product labs.

When the Android mobile operating system was first unveiled back in 2007, it was a sad-looking ripoff of the BlackBerry operating system. But when Apple launched the iPhone that year, Google immediately realised that it had seen the future of smartphones and it quickly went back to work in an effort to make its new mobile software more like the software on the iPhone. Fast-forward to 2014, and Google is the clear leader in terms of global market share, and its mobile software has grown by leaps and bounds. In fact, the tables have turned and it is now Apple that is copying features from Android with each new iOS update.

To illustrate how much Android has grown over the past seven years, Ars Technica put together a brief visual history of the platform’s user interface.

It’s clear that Google has maintained similar design elements with each new version of Android. Even from just looking at the evolution of the home screen, however, we can see how much more refined the platform is now compared to the early days.

Ars’ post is linked below in our source section, and here’s Google’s very first Android demo video to remind us of how far the platform has come:

Zach Epstein
Zach Epstein Executive Editor

Zach Epstein has been the Executive Editor at BGR for more than 10 years. He manages BGR’s editorial team and ensures that best practices are adhered to. He also oversees the Ecommerce team and directs the daily flow of all content. Zach first joined BGR in 2007 as a Staff Writer covering business, technology, and entertainment.

His work has been quoted by countless top news organizations, and he was recently named one of the world's top 10 “power mobile influencers” by Forbes. Prior to BGR, Zach worked as an executive in marketing and business development with two private telcos.