Some very interesting info has come to light from the Google vs. Oracle trial going on right now. Some of the evidence that Google had to bring to court are related to plans and revenue data from the tech giant's past as they relate to the case. Two juicy bites came out of this so far. One is that Google revealed their initial designs for the first Google branded phone (pictured above). This is circa 2006, which explains why this initial design is so hideous. Even though the aesthetics of the device are pretty poor, in relation to the time-frame they are actually not bad at all. Keep in mind that this was before the original G1 was released on T-Mobile. Here are the amazing specs on this beastly device from way back in 2006:
  • ARMv9 Processor (at least 200MHz)
  • 2-megapixel camera with dedicated hardware button
  • GSM (3G preferred)
  • 64MB of RAM and ROM
  • miniSD for external storage
  • Bluetooth 1.2
  • QVGA display with 16-bit color or better
  • USB support

Pretty radical huh? Nowadays you couldn't give a phone with these specs away with free service!

It's also interesting to note that Google actually had Android in 2006 and it was showing it on devices with the Texas Instruments OMAP850 processor in “three form factors.”


The other interesting tidbit to come out of the trial was that Google finally released their ad revenue for Android for the first time ever. Apparently, according to these numbers, iOS has been their number one source of ad revenue between the two operating systems. Obviously, when Android was new it was way down on the list, but eventually (and rapidly) it raced up to the number two spot, and continued to be that all the way through 2010.

It's interesting to see how all this is playing out, and will be fascinating to see how it continues to do so.

Source: SlashGear (1) & (2)