First Commercially Available Android Handset Shipped 5 Years Ago

The first commercially available Android-OS powered handset shipped 5 years ago yesterday. Meaning yesterday marked the “5th Birthday” of the Android operating system according to Android Central. The first handset that shipped with Android was HTC’s G1, pictured above. It really is hard to believe that Android is only 5 years old. The open-source linux-powered mobile operating system has come so immensely far, and done it at such a rapid pace, that surely no one could of predicted its huge success five years ago.

To reminisce on specifications a bit the HTC G1 had a 320 x 480 180 PPI display, single core 528MHz processor, Adreno 130 graphics, 192MB of RAM and 256MB of ROM. The device shipped with Android 1.6 Donut and operated on both 2G and 3G frequencies. Since then Android handsets are infinitely more advanced and the software has managed to keep pace too thanks to fierce competition between smartphone vendors. Over 1 billion Android handsets have been activated as of this month and who knows what another 5 years of Android innovation will bring to the handset market? Exciting times lay ahead.

Image courtesy of HTC