Some debates just never seem to have a clear winner: Mac vs. PC, Star Wars vs. Star Trek, Ford vs. Chevy, Tastes Great vs. Less Filling, iPhone vs. Android. Debates have ranged among various fans and factions on these sorts of topics for ages – or, in the case of iPhone vs. Android, since 2008. And while we can talk about market share or handset sales or profits or penetration into the enterprise market, the debate rages on.

One of the more interesting aspects of the iPhone vs. Android debate, though, is which came first. Of course, everybody knows that the iPhone beat the first Android phone to market by about a year, but fewer people know that Google had been working on Android for quite some time before that (though they made some major modifications once the iPhone proved popular). The timeline of the two platforms’ development turns out to be a pretty interesting story.

To tell that story, the folks at AppleGazette put together an infographic showing the development of the iPhone and Android in parallel, so you can really see which came first. It even contains a few surprises. For example, it turns out that the iPad was actually in development first, and was put on hold so Apple could work on the iPhone. Check out the infographic below, then let us know what you think in the comments: