T-Mobile G1 Officialy Announced

I watched the live streaming video this morning of the T-Mobile G1 press conference. The press conference was held in New York City. As soon as I can get a copy of the video I’ll put it on here. The announcement was about an hour long. There was a representative from Google, HTC and T-Mobile at the press conference. Interestingly enough the CEO of HTC attended the press conference. That just shows how important the G1 is to HTC. Might I add that HTC is totally kicking ASS these days when it comes to leading technology cell phones. All three men went on about how important the phone and operating system was to their respective company. They also showed a few videos highlighting the functionality of the G1. Overall I was pretty impressed with the phone. Needless to say that when the phone comes out next month I’ll be getting one.

The Google Android platform look pretty cool. Of course you can see a lot of the iPhone functionality being mimicked in the phone. For example you can swipe your finger across the screen to move it around and you can also enlarge pictures with finger movements. Since the operating system is made by Google just about all the Google apps have been integrated into the phone. Apps include GMAIL, Google Maps, Google Calendar and so on. If you’re a Google aps user then you’ll be happy to know the aps function just like they would on a desktop. Someone asked if Microsoft Office documents (Word, Excel, Powerpoint) could be opened on the phone. The reply was yes, but you would not be able to edit the document. Someone else asked if Skype was built-in and the answer was no.

Just like the iPhone has iTunes, the G1 has Amazon heavily integrated into the phone. If you’re looking to purchase music for your phone you’ll be doing it via Amazon.

One of the themes that all of the speakers kept reinforcing was the idea of 3rd party development and open source. Google Android is an open source operating system. The hopes of Google, as I mentioned in It’s All About Cell Phone Applications, is that 3rd party developers will be the driving force in creating applications that work with Android. Google realizes that the best applications will be built by 3rd party developers. To demonstrate this concept two companies were featured that built applications for Android. One of the two companies made an application that will allow you to scan the barcode of products using the phone’s camera. You will then be able to see competitive prices for that product. Pretty cool, huh. Speaking of the camera it is a 3 megapixel camera which is average, but there is not flash and no video record. Bummer. Oh well, something to look forward to in the next release.

Last, but not least the G1 has got your broadband needs covered. Not only does the G1 have Wi-Fi built-in, but it also will work on T-Mobile’s 3G network. During the press conference it was mentioned that the T-Mobile 3G network will be up and running in well over 25 markets. You can see the T-Mobile 3G network coverage for yourself. The G1 is built to be used on a broadband network so T-Mobile made sure to have us covered from all angles.

By now you’re probably wondering how you can get your hands on one of these bad boys. The G1 will be available at T-Mobile stores starting on October 22nd. You can pre-order on their website now, but the phone won’t be shipped until October 22nd. The phone will retail for $179. At a low price of $179 you know the lines are going to be very long at the T-Mobile stores so make sure you get there early! You can see more photos, specs and features at T-Mobile G1.