T-Mobile is expected to announce their Android phone on Sept. 23, according to the Wall Street Journal. The “HTC Dream” is due to hit stores as at the end of October. The phone’s pricing is still unclear although previous reports have pegged it at $199 (with a 2 year contract), $399 without a contract.
Powered by Google’s new mobile software, it will face off against Apple’s iPhone and RIM’s BlackBerry, blending aspects of both.
While some wireless companies working with Google’s Android mobile software have hit delays, the T-Mobile phone is coming out on schedule according to the WSJ. Backers are optimistic Android-based handsets can take sales from rivals.
The phone’s manufacturer HTC, says it expects to ship 600,000 to 700,000 units of the smart phone, this year, a person close to the situation said Monday. The target exceeds analysts’ estimates of 300,000 to 500,000.
The FCC granted authorization for the HTC Dream, which enables T-Mobile to market it, last month.
It is expected to be heavier than the iPhone, have a large touch screen, a swivel-out full keyboard and a BlackBerry-style trackball.
T-Mobile USA is introducing the phone as it begins to with support of third-generation broadband services using their new AWS spectrum (1.7/2.1 GHz). Google hopes that hundreds of phone models will be built around Android, giving the company another way to deliver advertisements and drive revenue.
Google has wrapped up judging on its very first Android Developer Challenge, with some twenty dev shops (and individuals) finding themselves relatively rich and famous with a variety of compelling applications.
Open source Android applications like Photostream provide simple photo browsing in Flickr.
I’m hoping for a GigaPan viewer to see my Gigapixel panoramas (above) on a handheld. Here’s the full-screen viewer and Google Earth view of Portland’s Amtrak station shot from my apartment.
Related Dailywireless stories include; OpenMoko Arrives, Apps Store: Red Hot, T-Mobile Plans Ap Store, Android: No Unification, Las Vegas Gets T-Mobile AWS, New LiMo Handsets, License to Print Money, Location Apps: Here. Now. and Open Warfare at OsCon.
