September 23rd, 2008
T-Mobile announces iPhone killer: G1 with Google
In one of the worst-kept secrets in the industry, T-Mobile announced the G1 at a press conference today in New York. Made by HTC and powered by Linux and Android, the G1 is poised to give the Apple iPhone a serious run for its money.
According to HTC’s Peter Chou, the G1 has a “unique iconic design unlike any in the market”. Think of it as a cross between an iPhone and a SideKick. It’s designed to maximize the mobile internet experience through open applications. The G1 is the world’s first Android phone. “The Android platform is nimble, flexible, and powerful,” said Chou.
Cole Brodeman at T-Mobile said that 3rd party open applications will really drive the adoption of the mobile internet. Android developers such as Jeff Sharkey, Gary Pong, Jason Hudgins, Jeff Kao, Joseph Rider, and Jason Wong were featured in a video highlighting the platform.
Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin also made a surprise appearance at the event. Sergey talked about how much fun it was to program (one program he wrote measured how long it took for a phone to come back down after you tossed it in the air) and Larry challenged the audience to do a web search on their phone and said Android would let you do it much faster.
Here are the technical details:
- Slide-out keyboard with dedicated search button
- Trackball
- Touch screen
- 3G, GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
- 3.1 Megapixel camera
- Applications:
- “Chrome-Lite” browser (as described by Google’s Andy Rubin)
- Amazon MP3 music store
- Google Maps with directions, traffic view, street view, and compass mode
- GMail
- YouTube
- Calendar
- Instant messaging for Google Talk, Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL
- On-line presence in the phone book
- Reads Word, PDF, Excel documents
- Android Market with free and paid apps
- Size: 4.6 x 2.16 x 0.63 in
- Weight: 5.6 ounces
- Display: 65K color screen, HVGA (480×320)
- Dual-band GPRS, Quad band GSM
- Talk Time: 5 hours
- Standby Time: 130 hours
- 1GB microSD memory card (expandable up to 8GB)
- Price:
$199$179 with 2 year contract - Plans: $25 unlimited web, $35 unlimited messaging (in addition to voice plan)
The T-Mobile G1 will be available at T-Mobile stores within or close to 3G coverage zones, or online at t-mobile.com. Pre-orders are available now. Commercial launch date is October 22nd in the US and early November in the UK.
Ed Burnette is a professional developer and author of several articles and books about computing including Hello, Android: Introducing Google's Mobile Development Platform, 2nd Edition. For disclosure of Ed's industry affiliations, click here or to view his full profile click here.
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| 09/23/08
