What has been the most important Android?

[CafeKampuchia]

This is a hard question to answer definitively. Android isn't where it is because of one phone (unlike Apple) but because of several important phones.

 

[cammykool]

No votes for the early LG Optimus line? (P500 s, u, v ect). It brought cheap androids to prepaid carriers and the less fortune masses

 

[dan330]

No votes for the early LG Optimus line? (P500 s, u, v ect). It brought cheap androids to prepaid carriers and the less fortune masses

you lost me at .. cheap

 

[Sak01]

I'm probably also biased but I do believe in the UK (and probably the rest of Europe) it was the Desire. We didn't get the Evo 4G or the Droid so it's hard to compare.

The GS3 has had the biggest global impact by far but I'd say momentum had already turned in favour of Android by the time it was released and it was just a matter of which manufacture could best capitalise on it.

 

[cammykool]

They were like 125$ and they were abalible to cheap carriers

 

[Unforgiven]

I'm probably also biased but I do believe in the UK (and probably the rest of Europe) it was the Desire. We didn't get the Evo 4G or the Droid so it's hard to compare.

The GS3 has had the biggest global impact by far but I'd say momentum had already turned in favour of Android by the time it was released and it was just a matter of which manufacture could best capitalise on it.

I thought the rest of the world got the Milestone which was essentially the Droid but introduced the world to encrypted bootloaders.

 

[davoid]

I thought the rest of the world got the Milestone which was essentially the Droid but introduced the world to encrypted bootloaders.

I'd never heard of the Milestone until you mentioned it just now. Mind you, after I took possession of my Desire, I didn't keep up with the new releases for quite a while because I was totally happy with my phone and I didn't like the look of the new HTC phones, even thought they were dual core, etc. I did become vaguely aware of a device released called the Galaxy S2 which was apparently pretty good though.

 

[cammykool]

The milestone was moto droid but GSM

 

[Hadron]

Yeah, we got the Milestone but many months after the Droid, with no real marketing, and it didn't make much impression on the market. I saw more Desire Zs than Milestones in the wild. Unfortunately Moto haven't been much interested in European markets lately - we got the RAZR I, but not the higher end ones. Hope they think global for the X.

I still see a few Desires on the street (or train) each week, in addition to my own.

Although the SGS3 is the highest profile phone, I'd agree with the previous poster who said that the momentum was already there.

 

[SUroot]

No question: it was the Desire (slightly biased as I had one): that was the first 'hit' Android phone. Nothing before it really sold well - no even the original Nexus that it was based on.

The Desire looked good, was reasonably high quality, had a decent spec (for the time, though it was beaten very, very soon afterward) and the O/S was mature enough to start to really compete with iOS. It was also the first 'droid to win phone of the year in lots of publications.

Compared to what came (very soon) after it, the Desire was a bit pants (500MB of RAM was never going to be enough), but it was the Desire that kick started the market and after it, Android went from strength to strength.

The Desire was the Stalingrad of the war with Apple

Totally agree.

It was also available in the USA. I know there was a US cellular / CDMA version.