Launch of the Android Phone HTC Dream G1 on Sept. 23
By Azam on September 16, 2008
T-Mobile plans to official launch the first mobile phone running Google ’s Android software on September 23rd with a press conference in New York. The gphone or Android based has been highly anticipated and rumors swirling for months on the launched and features. The Federal Communications Commission granted authorization for the device named the HTC Dream allowing T-Mobile to market it, last month. Several sites have leaked images and videos of the new HTC Dream G1 phone.
T-Mobile’s phone, an HTC Dream (aka G1), is expected to be available to consumers at the end of October. Its arrival after months of anticipation among technophiles promises to reinvigorate the smart phone market and to provide a mobile application platform to rival Apple’s iPhone App Store.
According to the WSJ
The phone’s manufacturer, HTC Corp., forecasts sales that are rosier than analysts’ estimates. HTC says it expects to ship 600,000 to 700,000 units of the smart phone, dubbed the Dream, this year, a person close to the situation said Monday. The target exceeds analysts’ estimates of 300,000 to 500,000.
Leading Up to the launch of project Android
Last November, Google announced the formation of the Open Handset Alliance, a group of more than 30 hardware, software, and telecom companies, to promote open standards for mobile devices. The group includes Google, HTC, Intel, Motorola, and T-Mobile, to name a few.
In August, after several rough spots, Android’s prospects brightened considerably, thanks to the FCC’s approval of the HTC Dream, Google’s delivery of the Android 0.9 SDK beta, and T-Mobile’s confirmation of its plan to ship an HTC Android-powered phone.
Also in August, Google announced the Android Market, “an open content distribution system that will help end users find, purchase, download and install various types of content on their Android powered devices.”
“Developers can expect the first handsets to be enabled with a beat version of Android Market,” said Eric Chu, Google’s Mobile Platform program manager, in a blog post last month.
The availability of T-Mobile’s Android phone and a functioning application store si set to compete primarily with Apple iPhone and App Store. The highly competitive smart phone market has switched into high gear after the launch of the iPhone as the killer device. The iPhone became the first true mobile device to enable easy access to the internet in format that offers and enjoyable user experience. The device forced other makers of smart phones like RIMM , Nokia, HTC, etc to develop and offer response in a device to match features of the iPhone.
The launched of the HTC dream phone is the initial answer or response offered by the Google Android effort. Google is interested in offering a platform to leverage its Google applications to move on to the phone. Google will like to ensure that a number of phones would be able to offer access to take advantage of the internet and ability to serve ads. Google essential partnered with wireless carriers’ mobile device markers to compete with the iPhone. Apple’s dominance with a more closed system would cause significant worry to Google in its ability to access uses for its ad driven revenue model. We will have to wait and see if the Google Android product lives up to the dream.
Tags : , Android, apple, G1, Google, HTC Dream, iPhone, RIMM, T-Mobile