T-Mobile and Google launched the G1 today, the first mobile
phone to run Google’s
open source Android
software platform.
Aimed at heavy mobile internet users, the
T-Mobile G1 smartphone, made by HTC to a joint Google / T-Mobile
design, will be available in the UK in November on contract-only
for £40/m, which includes unlimited internet time.
Richard Warmsley, T-Mobile’s head of internet and entertainment,
said one of the first applications users can download from Google
market is a price comparison tool. This uses the three-megapixel
camera to record the barcode of a product, and uses that image as a
search term in Google to scour the net for the same product.
Another is a real-time carbon footprint calculator that uses the
built-in GPS, accelerometer and compass to track location and
details about transport mode to work out the owner’s contribution
to global warming.
Google spent £5m on a competition to encourage software
developers to write application for Android.
Warmsley said applications such as Google Talk, Email, Maps and
Calendar are loaded on the phone. Google Apps such as word
processing and spreadsheet are available via an internet link. A
slide-out qwerty keyboard will make these easier to use than
predictive texting.
He said there was no special targeting of business users at
launch. “That would happen as customer demand drove application
developers in that direction,” he said.
He said the G1 is the only Android phone with Google branding.
He expected more Android phones to appear in the new year.
Network operators usually subsidise the retail price of phones,
recovering the cost over the life of the contract or from higher
fees for pay as you go phones.
Current proposals from Vivane Reding, the European
communications commissioner, would slash mobile call prices,
leaving a cash flow gap in T-Mobile’s roll-out plans.
“We have to run a responsible business, so we are watching
that,” Warmsley said. He said a simplified pricing regime and lower
prices would, in the long run, grow the market for smartphones. But
he said initial customer interest was intense, and G1 phones are
likely to be hard to come by. He did not disclose T-Mobile’s
initial orders from HTC.
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