T-Mobile's Google phone heralds Android invasion
— -- The G1 is a highly capable handheld computer with a responsive touch-screen like Apple's hot-selling iPhone has. It also packs a slide-out physical keyboard. And it has multimedia picture messaging, a removable battery and other features the iPhone lacks. The mobile operating system at its core — what Google calls Android — is slick, if a little raw in some places.
But folks expecting iPhone-like glitter and glitz are bound to be disappointed. The hardware is unsexy. The phone performs better on T-Mobile's fastest data network, but the carrier is only now rolling out that network in a lot of places. Even with access, Web pages took a long time to load.
The battle for tech supremacy is increasingly going mobile. While Google products and services are embedded in other phones, Android marks the company's entry into the high-stakes smartphone market dominated by Apple and Research In Motion.
The phone was built by Taiwanese manufacturer HTC. It costs $179 with a two-year T-Mobile voice plan, $399 without a contract. Data plans are reasonably priced: $25 or $35 a month, depending on whether you choose 400 messages or unlimited messaging. Plans include unlimited Web browsing and e-mail, plus access to T-Mobile Wi-Fi HotSpots.
T-Mobile says demand for the new smartphone is three times what it originally anticipated. But if the G1 hardware fails to ring your chimes, there'll be lots of other Android-based phones coming. LG, Motorola and Samsung are among companies producing prototypes. Google CEO Eric Schmidt envisions thousands of Android devices some day.
Long term, Google hopes to make money with Android as it always has, through advertising. "None of the executives ever said to us, 'First show us the business plan, and then we'll tell you whether you can build Android or not,' " says Google's Rich Miner, a co-founder of Android.
There are more than 3.3 billion active cellphones on the planet and several mobile platforms: RIM's BlackBerry, Microsoft's Windows Mobile, Apple's OS X, Palm OS and Symbian. Android's early incarnation stacks up favorably. The interface is flexible. I like such clever innovations as the menus and status notifications you drag down from the top of the screen like a window shades.
