Here’s how the first Android smartphone could be

It was October 2008 when HTC Dreams ushered in the glorious era of Android smartphones, debuting a year after Apple’s iPhone. However, in the past few hours the co-founder of Android Rich Miner has posted on Twitter a series of images that show a prototype of what could have been the first Android smartphone, that is a smart phone with the then unprecedented operating system, moreover at the center of a study six months before the release of the first iPhone by. A quick glance is enough to discover several rather significant design differences compared to Htc Dreams, which then remained the only project standing for the commercial launch, which also took place under the name of T-Mobile G1 with the telephone operator’s brand. US.

Rich Miner has posted photos of the never born smartphone inside a small thread on Twitter, published in response to a Business Insider article comparing Facebook’s current strategy for the Metaverse to that of Android at the time of its market debut. According to the manager, however, the wrong approach and to explain the reasons he also published the shots of one prototype smartphone called Sooner, which is defined as BlackBerry style due to the presence of a full qwerty keyboard accessible by moving the screen upwards. Something close to the HTC Dreams line, which then remained unique of two models at the center of the work, but with different characteristics noteworthy such as the contrast between the total black look and the almost phosphorescent keyboard which has a different layout than the second model.

Also, there are more physical keys on the bottom edge in combination with a small one keypad to move through the menus instead of the minimalist trackball of Htc Dreams, while the touchscreen nature of the display remains intact, one of the fundamental pillars of the project. We will never know what fate this model would have had if it were released, for the record Htc Dreams soon reached the million units sold in about six months: who knows if it will be re-proposed in a modern vintage version for the nostalgic of the first Android?