Tomorrow sees the launch of Google’s iPhone Killer, The G1 is made by HTC in Taiwan and is a direct competitor to Apples iPhone. The G1 is the first phone to use Googles Android operating system. T-Mobile is the launch partner in the states.
The new Google phone is rumoured to have a touch screen like the iPhone but includes a slide-out Qwerty keypad. The phone has previously been referred to as the HTC Dream and the “Kila”, the project name given by T-Mobile.
Google announced its plans for Android last year alongside the unveiling of the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of mobile phone makers and networks whose stated purpose is to “accelerate innovation in mobile and offer consumers a richer, less expensive, and better mobile experience”.
As part of this plan, they made Android a so-called “open platform”, which means no one is charged to use it either in a device or as a basis for writing applications. As a result, anyone can write programs that will run on an Android phone - from maps and calendars to word-processing software and games.
A similar developer community has already sprung up around the iPhone, whose software is controlled by Apple although anyone can write applications that will run on it. Users of the phone and the iPod Touch have downloaded the 3,000 applications available from the iTunes store more than 100m times since it opened on July 8 this year. But iPhone applications are only available through the iTunes store, meaning that Apple controls what is available to users.
Applications for the Google G1 Phone can be downloaded from anywhere, although there is talk that Google, HTC and T-Mobile will set up some sort of applications repository, though weather Google will exercise the tight control that apple does on the iTunes store in some cases Apple has banned applications that compete with apple applications
The hope for Google is that ultimately Android will help more mobile phone customers get online through their mobile phone and use Google services on which Google can sell advertising.
Being the first to market will be a feather in the cap for HTC, the Taiwanese company known mainly as a maker of handsets that run on Microsoft’s Windows Mobile operating system.
LG and Samsung will unveil their first Google-powered mobile phones next year. Spyshots of the Gphone aka the HTC Dream via Gizmodo and rizzn.com
