Google's Android 'T-Mobile G1 Phone' Causing a Stir in Smart Phone Market

It is the first phone that uses Google's Android operating system and was created by Taiwanese handset maker HTC.

T-Mobile's G1 is available online to existing T-Mobile customers starting from today. Monthly plans start at $65 a month. It will later hit stores in the U.S. on October 22 for a price of $179 with a two-year voice and data contract. The handset will be available in the UK early November, while the rest of Europe will receive it in 2009.

The phone is $20 cheaper than the iPhone, an attempt by T-Mobile to lure customers away from Apple.

Like the iPhone, the G1 has a high-resolution screen, making it easier to browse Web sites that haven't been specifically adapted for a cell phone. Unlike the iPhone, Research in Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerry's and other high-end smart phones sold in the U.S., the G1 has a very limited ability to connect to corporate e-mail servers.

It features a 320x480 touch screen, a hidden QWERTY keyboard, Wi-Fi, 3G, and an accelerometer. Integrated on the G1's keyboard is a trackball for thumb-based navigation, and a 3-megapixel camera.

The handset works internationally and offers innovative features such as a scanner that allows consumers read product bar codes and compare prices online.

There are also built-in Internet applications and access to thousands of applications via the new Android marketplace.

"Generally, we think if there are great (operating systems) out there that let people have great devices and great applications, people use the Internet on their phones much more," Google co-founder Sergey Brin said at the launch event in New York, according to Associated Press.

"It's just very exciting for me as a computer geek to be able to have a phone that I can play with and modify and innovate upon just like I have with computers in the past," he said.