Google unveils own mobile g-phone: the T-Mobile G1

Yesterday, after months of anticipation, internet search giant Google unveiled their own mobile phone.  The mobile device, manufactured by HTC and developed in collaboration with mobile operator T-Mobile, has been baptized the T-Mobile G1.   It will start quite a competition with the popular iPhone of rival Apple.  The handset, which is based on Google’s Android platform, will be available in US stores on October 22nd for $179, which is 20 dollars cheaper than the iPhone.  It comes with a 2-year subscription with T-Mobile.

At first glance, the design seems to us a bit less sophisticated.  It’s thicker but narrower than the iPhone.  Many of its features are similar to the iPhone and Blackberry: touch screen, trackball navigation, 3G, Wi-Fi, e-mail, GPS,…  Advantage over the iPhone is the Qwerty keyboard and a higher resolution camera (3 megapixel). However, the G1 can’t shoot video, while the iPhone can. 

To compete with Apple’s iTunes store, the T-Mobile G1 offers access to 6 million MP3 songs in the Amazon store.  And of course, there are lots of Google applications integrated in this smartphone: Google maps, Gmail, Youtube.  The mobile device is also aimed to boost Google’s open source Android software platform.

Surely, we’ll hear lots more about this new toy in the coming days & weeks!
Full product presentation can be found on www.t-mobileg1.com/