And what exactly is the difference between these two devices? That one has a physical keyboard, the other an onscreen representation? Android is still the same OS, no matter which input method it uses. So how can you say that Android copied iOS when the biggest change is roughly the equivalent to swapping a trackball with a mouse?
Actually Android is not the same OS. There have been several versions of Android since 1.0. And while you are correct to note that it was agnostic as to screen resolution and it would substitute a software keyboard when no hardware keyboard was available, the OS was far more suited for a trackball & physical keyboard by virtue of the fact that a far greater percentage of devices at the time used those rather than a touch screen. As more demand for touch screens came up (i.e. the desire to catch up to Apple while the BlackBerry "final victory" types claimed they could never use a phone without a physical keyboard), the OS evolved to more more touch friendly.
Just check out the Android API:
http://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/MotionEvent.html
And keep changing the API level from 1 to 16 and watch as the number of available constants under the MotionEvent class increases with every new API level (i.e. Android OS version).
So the point is that while Apple had a clear "touch only from the start @ 320x480" vision and an OS and API design perfectly suited for touch without any compromises, Android started under the assumption that it was mostly going to be smaller screens and physical keyboards and trackballs or scroll wheels. As more devices became touch screens, the OS is now clearly more suited for that.
So no, Android is not the same. The more Google played catch up, the more Android OS began to resemble the OS that it has been trying to catch up to.
No. I even provided sources to back up many of my claims. Something you omitted.
Again. No. I provided evidence that Android devices remained... Android devices, ie, many things. Sliders, Qwerty portrait keyboard devices, touch screen. There are many examples of Android working on many form factors phones. I have shown them.
Yeah, so I never contested the fact that Android was resolution and keyboard agnostic - you're pushing against an open door here. The point is that Android was far more suited for keyboard+trackball/scroll+small-screen in it's infancy specifically
because of the compromises necessary to make a hardware agnostic OS.
And what would those iOS designs and UI elements be exactly ? What respects did Android copy iOS ?
Android and iOS are as far apart as anything I've ever seen. OS wise, UI wise, user interaction wise. I made a lengthy post once detailing why. Please don't make dig it up. Provide actual examples of what you think Android "took" from iOS instead.
As far apart as anything you've ever seen? Maybe Android OS 1.0 and iPhone OS 1.0 yes, but Android 4.1 and iOS 5 have converged - towards iOS, not the other way around (in general - one can point to specific things that Android had first like notifications, though as with most things Apple ends up with the better implementation).
I won't write up convergent similarities - I think it's
prima facie obvious to most, and you can probably google the case against your own argument - if you haven't done this there's no point in me trying here, and if you have there's no point either.
No, it's not. It's part of the core Android design and philosophy. It's what makes Android ... well... Android. A hardware agnostic OS that can run on many different types of architectures/form factors, etc.. It proves the whole point that Android was designed not to fit a single or particular type of device like you and others claim.
Nobody is claiming "Android was made for BB form-factor only and later copied Apple's form factor". Rather, the claim is "Android was screen and input agnostic but was created in a BB-centric market context and therefore all design trade-offs and compromises were made in the direction of the BB form-factor while keeping the agnosticism, and post-iPhone, the direction of those trade-offs and compromises was completely reversed towards a touch-screen emphasis".
Just check out the way the API evolved:
http://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/MotionEvent.html
It's quite obvious that touch-screen was marginal - a possibility amongst many - before the iPhone, while now it's fully developed and essentially dominant, even if physical keyboards are still supported.
I didn't mix anything and provided actual links, sources, and picture evidence. You did none of that. You simply used ad hominems and vague references.
Try actual facts.
Sure you are. And saying that you're mixing things is not really an
ad-hominem - my argument went into precisely what was being mixed, and while abstract (or vague, as you say), it's point was to clarify what is actually being contested and to concede what needs to be conceded on the "Apple side" in order to give you the chance to do the same in good faith. An
ad-hominem would be to say you're wrong because your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries.
Nobody here is talking about the Android programming language, compiler, etc. You claim they are relevant because they are part of the "Android runs on anything" idea, but they aren't really. It doesn't matter what language Android uses - it could be using Objective-C and be compiled for any Android device. It doesn't matter what compiler is used, so long as it compiled for a valid target (ARM, x86). All of this is irrelevant - bringing it up only distracts from the point. Everyone here will readily concede that Android OS 1.0 could run on a touch screen with a software keyboard.
The point is that the Android OS used to be much more BB-form centric until iOS came along. That's right, even while being hardware-agnostic, you have to make compromises when you create something capable of using many radically different inputs and differing form factors. And in the BB-centric pre-iOS world, all those design compromises (UI design-wise - JIT and ARM/x86 are irrelevant) were slanted one way. When Apple came out with a very bold and decisive form-factor/input style that would be practically set in stone, Android manufacturers followed and Android OS
evolved accordingly on the API/UI design side.
