The largest smartphone operating system in the current market had its humble beginnings exactly seven years ago, with the launch of the first Android smartphone by HTC, named the Dream and also known as the T-Mobile G1. Yes, it was the seventh birthday yesterday of the first Android smartphone, marking the beginning of quite a marvelous journey and Google is celebrated that day with the release of a new set of wallpapers for your home screen. Expectations about the first phone with a brand new OS by Google were high, and although it was not as sophisticated, they did come with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, a favorite among a lot of users, a neat trackpad, 3G connectivity and also the new OS named Android. The version of Android was 1.5, codenamed Cupcake, after their naming conventions in line with popular desserts. Back in those days, Android did not even have the option for a virtual keyboard.
Although the specifications look antiquated when compared to devices of today, they were still an exciting new piece of technology, with a brand new OS that would later go on to dominate the smartphone arena. It packed a 3.2 inch TFT capacitive touchscreen with a resolution of 320×480 pixels and was powered by a Qualcomm MSM7201A with a single core processor at 528 MHz and a paltry RAM of just 192 MB. Seems old? It is! It also included a 3.15 MP camera and was charged by a miniUSB. Yes, that was a time when microUSB was not yet popular. The battery was an 1150 mAh lithium battery, which would be enough for a 3.2-inch screen, and it also included GPS, accelerometer and compass among the sensors.
The main point of interest was the new operating system, as it was brand new, and marked the beginning of a long rivalry with Apple. It had almost everything customizable, with access to an open platform and Android Market. It also provided developers an excellent platform to create and publish apps, to reach a greater audience through the Android Market, now known as the Google Play Store. Eventually Google launched their Nexus lineup of devices, showcasing the latest Android devices, with excellent hardware and an affordable price tag which further paved the way for the new OS to grow. Google celebrated this event with some nice eye candy wallpaper.
