Non-poaching emails show Jobs was warring with Google long before iPhone was launched | 9to5Mac - The damage had been done, however. Two years later Apple would unveil the iPhone, and just one year after that Google would go public with its own competitor. Jobs decided enough was enough, and a rivalry was born.
Since it's not possible to build an iPhone competitor in a year, it is safe to assume that Android only became an iPhone competitor when the iPhone emerged. Prior to that, it was a Symbian and Windows Phone competitor.
