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“Any claim, any hint, even the idea that Google produced Android having no prior mobile OS experience is just ridiculous. Google gained that experience the instant Google bought Android, Inc”

Without Tony Fadell and without PortalPlayer, there is no iPod or even IPhone.
All it had to take was for Realnetworks or Philips not to have turned down Tony Fadell , and it would have been bye bye iPod.:

“One man that could be named the father of the iPod is Tony Fadell. Tony Fadell was a former employee of General Magic and Phillips who wanted to invent a better MP3 player.
After being turned down by RealNetworks and Phillips, Fadell found support for his project with Apple. Tony Fadell went to work for Apple Computers in 2001 as an independent contractor, leading a team of thirty people to develop the new MP3 player.

PortalPlayer
Tony Fadell also partnered with a company called PortalPlayer who had been working on their own MP3 player to design the software for the new Apple player. Jonathan Ive, Senior Vice President of Industrial Design at Apple Computers led the team that kept perfecting the iPod itself after Fadell’s team had finished their contract.
In the Wired article, Inside Look at Birth of the IPod, Ben Knauss a former senior manager at PortalPlayer revealed that Fadell was familiar with PortalPlayer’s reference designs for a couple of MP3 players, including one about the size of a cigarette packet. And though the design was unfinished, several prototypes had been built and Fadell recognized the design’s potential.

Within eight months, Tony Fadell’s team and PortalPlayer completed a prototype iPod and Apple polished the user interface adding the famous scroll wheel.”
http://inventors.about.com/od/istartinventions/a/iPod.htm

And the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/25/business/yourmoney/25jobs.html
Umm..what was it you were saying again?

Without Tony Fadell and without PortalPlayer, there is no iPod or even IPhone. All it had to take was for Realnetworks or Philips not to have turned down Tony Fadell , and it would have been bye bye iPod.:

And what is the purpose of this meaningless distraction? You seem to miss the point of the article that Apple knew a good thing in what Fadell had, and everybody else didn't.

Apple polished the user interface adding the famous scroll wheel

It's kind of funny that even though Fadell's team made the guts, the iconic feature of the iPod above all other players was that Apple-designed click wheel and case.