T-Mobile launches Google Android G1 phone.(PRODUCTS)

[Wireless media] Handset manufacturer HTC, mobile operator T-Mobile and Google have unveiled the first phone based on the Google-backed Android operating System. The G1 is a T-Mobile exclusive that launched in the US on 22 October 2008 for $179 with a two-year contract including data. The device will launch in the UK in November (free on a 40 [pounds sterling] a month contract) and across remaining T-Mobile countries in early 2009. The G1, which features a full touch-screen and a Qwerty keyboard, enables access to Google's mobile application store Android Market and several existing Google products including Gmail, YouTube and Google Maps. According to Google, all applications will be available free until first quarter 2009, when T-Mobile's exclusivity over the Android platform ends. Developers will then get 70 per cent of revenue from purchases, the rest going to mobile operators for billing provision. This is the same revenue-sharing agreement developers get on iTunes, except that Apple gets the remaining 30 per cent.
* Although press coverage tends to pit the first Android-powered handset (the G1) against Apple's iPhone in some sort of ultimate match for smartphone supremacy, this analysis misses a bigger picture: Google and Apple have very different revenue streams and thus objectives. The former aims to secure an open mobile environment to open the market for advertising revenues, the latter remains a technology company whose revenues are driven by hardware sales.
The G1 is far from being the revolutionary product application developers and content providers were hoping for, as it is still under the control of mobile operators. T-Mobile has product exclusivity over its lifetime and a veto over applications available on the G1's version of Android Market. Screen Digest believes that we will not see the full capabilities of the platform until 2009, when T-Mobile's exclusivity on the Android OS runs out and new Android handsets and paid-for applications are available. Android is in no way limited to the mobile handset. It could eventually be used to power ultra-portable PCs (as an alternative to Windows or some Linux distributions), automobile in-dash entertainment or set-top boxes able to deliver contextual advertising on top of TV broadcasts. Combining Android-powered set-top boxes with Google's Grand Central services could also position Android as a powerful communications platform for the connected home.