With T-Mobile launching G1 - the first cell phone powered by Google’s Android operating system - today in New York City, the big question is whether the Linux-based Android phones can slow down the momentum of Apple’s iPhone.
Manufactured by Taiwanese firm HTC, the T-Mobile G1 phone will start selling on October 22 in the U.S. for $179 with a two-year voice and data agreement. Unlimited Internet access+400 messages is $25 per month. Add $10 for unlimited messages. Voice charges are additional. They will be available in the U.K. in November and elsewhere in Europe in 2009.
While the T-Mobile G1 is $20 cheaper than the entry-level 8GB iPhone 3G, it comes with only 1GB memory on a memory card (maximum of 8GB).
T-Mobile G1
The touch screen-based T-Mobile G1 includes a pull-out QWERTY keyboard, a trackball and the usual Google services like Google Maps with StreetView, Gmail and YouTube. It supports 3G, Wi-Fi and the slower Edge network.
The phone features a 3-megapixel camera, an HTML e-mail client and support for AOL, Yahoo Messenger, Windows Live Messenger and Google Talk instant messaging services.
G1 comes pre-loaded with the Amazon MP3 application to let users buy