Today T-Mobile has released the first mobile phone with Android, Google’s mobile operating system, in a launch that could win the search giant 4 percent of the smartphone market.The T-Mobile/Google phone, dubbed the G1, is the newest agitator in a fast-moving U.S. smartphone market so far dominated by Research In Motion with 16 million BlackBerry subscribers, followed by newcomer Apple, who in 15 months has already sold over 10 million iPhones.
The G1, which is expected to retail for $199 and carry the Google brand, should be available for sale in a few weeks. Details are scarce--other than the obvious web browsing and e-mail capabilities--but the phone is expected to be an iPhone/BlackBerry hybrid of some sort, with a touch screen and a full tactile keyboard.
In a then unique move, Google had announced a free software platform and operating system for mobile devices based on Linux, which would be available to mobile carriers under the Apache free-software and open-source license. The Android OS now has the muscle of the Open Handset Alliance, a group of 34 software, hardware, and telecommunications companies.
But since Google started its Android effort the industry has seen the launch of two other free, open-source mobile software platforms, heating up the competition for web advertising domination.
Symbian, the world's largest supplier of software for smartphones--with 57 percent market share--was bought by Nokia in June, and like Google the Finnish company decided to make the software available to other phone makers for free. But Google remains the undisputed king of web advertising, a precious advantage over any rival, and it already counts T-Mobile and Sprint Nextel on its side.
AT&T, the leading U.S. phone carrier and distributor of the iPhone--which runs on Apple's operating system--remains undecided if it will sign up an open-source mobile operating system.
