It almost seems like Android has been around forever, but that’s not the case. The HTC Dream/G1 was only released in 2008, and while some of our younger audience may have been “born” into Android, many of us switched to it from something else. Looking back, which software platform did you last use before coming to these greener, bugdroid-laden pastures?
We take the effective Android/iOS duopoly now for granted, but in the ancient, early smartphone era of our forefathers (roughly 2007-2011ish), there were a lot more options. I invite criticism with the sentiment, but I’d argue that Android wasn’t even among the best platforms available at the time. However, it certainly grew into the role, especially with the release of Android 4.0 ICS in 2011. But before we switched to Android, most of our older readers likely used something else.
Many of the mid-aughts proprietary dumbphone operating systems didn’t even have names. Lots of them were based on common platforms like BREW or various ambiguated Java platforms, though Symbian was a popular and well-branded option that persisted across several versions and years. Many Android users came to our shores following the demise of other platforms, like Windows Phone and Blackberry OS.
A good chunk of our readers aren’t using Android at all right now — sorry, but this poll doesn’t apply to you guys. But if you did use something before switching to Android, what was it? We can’t encompass every option — especially given all the unnamed platforms that existed for various feature phones across the eras — but hopefully, the options below cover most of the more popular choices. If you’ve made the switch back and forth more than once, answer with your most recent change.
