---
title: "Which came first, Android or the Macintosh?"
description: "Android vs the Macintosh: the Macintosh came first, by 24 years — 1984 against 2008. What happened in each case, and why the dates are often given differently."
url: https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/android-vs-macintosh/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Which came first, Android or the Macintosh?

**Which came first, Android or the Macintosh?: the Macintosh**

1984 — 24 years before Android

the Macintosh came first, by 24 years. Apple launched the first Macintosh, two days after the Super Bowl advert.

## Side by side

|  | Android | the Macintosh |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Year | 2008 | 1984 |
| Date | 2008-09-23 | 1984-01-24 |
| Category | technology | technology |
| What happened | The HTC Dream, the first Android phone, was announced. | Apple launched the first Macintosh, two days after the Super Bowl advert. |

## Android

Android as a company was founded in October 2003 — four years before the iPhone — originally to build an operating system for digital cameras. Google bought it in 2005 and the first Android phone shipped in October 2008, fifteen months after the iPhone went on sale. So Android is older than the iPhone as a project and younger as a product, which is why the question needs the distinction stated.

## the Macintosh

The Macintosh launched in January 1984 with a graphical interface and a mouse, and beat Windows to market by almost two years. Neither invented the idea — Xerox PARC had built the Alto in 1973, and both Apple and Microsoft were working from what they had seen there. Mac OS X, the ancestor of today's macOS, arrived much later in 2001 and is Unix underneath.

## Common questions

### Which came first, Android or the Macintosh?

the Macintosh, by 24 years — 1984 against 2008.

### When did Android start?

2008. The HTC Dream, the first Android phone, was announced.

### When did the Macintosh start?

1984. Apple launched the first Macintosh, two days after the Super Bowl advert.

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## Sources

- Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation (https://www.wikidata.org/) [CC0 1.0]