Google and telecom carrier T-Mobile unveiled Tuesday the first mobile device powered by the Internet search giant's software, a smartphone seen as a potential rival to Apple's popular iPhone.
The T-Mobile G1, informally known as the "Google phone," is built by Taiwanese firm HTC and was released by Google and T-Mobile executives in New York.
The phone runs on Google's open source Android software, which Google hopes will eventually become the dominant operating system for mobile phones and make handsets compatible with the networks of multiple carriers.
The G1 offers many of the features of the iPhone and Research in Motion's BlackBerry, including a touch screen, high-speed Internet browsing, Wi-Fi, e-mail and SMS texting. It can also run applications such as Google Maps.
Internet retail giant Amazon.com announced shortly before the G1 release, in a direct challenge to Apple's iTunes, that the entire catalogue of the Amazon MP3 music store would be available on the new phone.
Source: AFP Global Edition
