Here it is. The T-Mobile Android phone (live webcast). Here’s T-Mobile’s Overview, Features and FAQs. A video walkthrough shows its unique features like the accelerometer-based Google Maps Streetview.
Google News, Engadget, Gizmodo, C/Net and Walt Mossberg have more. It will cost $179 with a two year contract. Unlimited internet with “some messaging” will run $25/month. Unlimited internet and messaging is $35/month. Data plans will require voice plans. It will be SIM-locked to T-Mobile. Like the iPhone, tethering the phone to a laptop for use as a modem is not permitted.
The HTC Dream is the first phone that uses Google’s Android open-source operating system. T-Mobile USA is the first carrier to the offer the new phone. Amazon just announced its MP3 music store will be be pre-loaded as an application. Desmond Smith, a senior product engineer at T-Mobile, told New TeeVee that video capture won’t be available at launch, but that it may be available early next year. There is no hardware limitation that precludes it, he added.
It features a 480 x 320 HVGA display, 3G (T-Mobile’s AWS), WiFi, GPS, a 3.1-megapixel camera, has 1GB MicroSD card preinstalled, supports 8GB MicroSD, and features 5 hours of talktime with 130 hours of standby. Qualcomm integrated their single chip, dual- core solution that combines high-speed processing, hardware-accelerated multimedia capabilities, 3D graphics and multi-mode 3G mobile broadband. It will have Bluetooth (but not in stereo), requires a Gmail account, and won’t be sold at stores outside of a 2-5 mile radius of T-Mobile’s 3G coverage areas.
T-Mobile plans 3G service in dozens of cities. Their 3G data plans include an unlimited data plan ($29.99/mo) and $49.99/mo (for additional access to T-Mobile’s Wi-Fi hotspot).
Gizmodo compiled Android’s 10 Most Exciting Apps:
- Enkin – A quasi-three-dimensional Google Earth type view, and coolest of all, overlay them onto the view streaming live out of your phone’s camera. It uses GPS and accelerometers to sense exactly which direction the camera pointing,
- Locale — Lets you define your most frequented places on a map and set your phone to respond to those places in a number of different ways.
- GeoLife A location-aware to-do list. You can pair actions on your list to locations.
- Ecorio – Using GPS, Ecorio runs in the background (another edge Android has over the iPhone) and estimates the carbon output of your day’s journeys.
- Cab4me – Takes your current location and feeds it into a database of nation-wide cab companies, allowing you to order a cab pickup instantly.
- BioWallet – Uses your phone’s camera as an iris scanner to lock down sensitive information, processed on external servers and sent back to your phone with a pass/fail reading.
- CompareEverywhere and GoCart – Both capture photos of product UPC codes to then tie into online databases for comparison pricing, product availability, and shopping list compilation.
- TuneWiki – Grabs lyrics and album art with your music. See it in action here.
- Teradesk e-Storage – File versioning and Google Docs integration.
The official launch date is October 22, but will roll out over several weeks, and will be available in cities representing 80 percent of the population by November. Existing T-mobile customers can order them now on a special Web site. It will be available in Britain in early November and in the rest of Europe next year.
The G1 will come equipped with the Android Market, a mobile app store akin to Apple’s own App Store for the iPhone. The companies said that there would be a “steady stream of innovations” in addition to old favorites, like classic games. The app market launches on October 22, when the T-Mobile G1 goes on sale.
Strategy Analytics estimates some 400,000 Android phones will sell in the fourth quarter of 2008, and 4 to 6 million in 2009. Strategy Analytics forecasts 10.5 million smartphones to be sold in the U.S. in Q4 2008, with Android getting about four percent of the U.S. smartphone market.
comScore M:Metrics says that 19.9 million Americans now have a smartphone, an increase of 121 percent since July 2007, when 9 million people had one.
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AT&T leads all operators in smartphone ownership, with 8.5 million and posted the highest growth year over year, at 151 percent. T-Mobile, however, grew its base of smartphone subscribers by an impressive 137 percent year-over-year.
According to Comscore, the top five smartphones in the U.S. are:
- Apple 8GB iPhone
- RIM BlackBerry 8100 Pearl
- Motorola Q
- Samsung BlackJack II SGH-i617
- Samsung BlackJack SGH-i607
Piper Jaffray estimates Apple will have sold 5 million iPhone 3Gs during the current quarter, well on its way to the 10 million goal that Apple has said is its target for 2008.
HTC’s G1 is only the first Android phone. Motorola, LG and Samsung are also expected to launch Open Handset Alliance (Android) phones next year.
It’s unlikely the T-Mobile phone will do much to wrestle customers away from rival carriers, analysts say. Most subscribers are locked into annual contracts, the price of the G1 is just $20 less than Apple’s, and the cheapest monthly plan for the G1 is $65 — just $5 less than the comparable iPhone plan.
Still, I’d gladly pay $399 for a contract-free G-1 and utilize its built-in Wi-Fi, along with a prepaid plan.
