There’s been a lot of talk today about Eric Schmidt’s statement that Android pre-dated Apple’s iOS, so it couldn’t possibly be a rip-off.

People have been quick to point out that Android started in 2003 and was bought by Google in 2005. That’s two years before Apple released its first iPhone in 2007.

However, it would appear that nobody considered the fact that Apple didn’t just pull iOS out of its ass in 2007. They worked on it for years prior to releasing it in the first iPhone.

Using the introduction date of the iPhone is completely ignoring the development time that Apple put into iOS, the iPhone and iPad.

As John Gruber points out, versions of Android in 2007 resembled the BlackBerry. It’s only after the release of iOS that Google’s strategy was to copy everything that Apple does.