Blast Advanced Media

After months of anticipation of hearing about Google’s entry into the mobile phone market with the ambition to make the Internet easy to use on the go was revealed Tuesday, and it looks a lot like Apple’s iPhone.

T-Mobile USA showed off the G1 (previously code named Google Android), a phone that like Apple’s iPhone, has a large touch screen. But it also packs a trackball, a slide-out keyboard and easy access to Google’s e-mail and mapping programs.

The desktop shot looks roughly similar to the Android desktop shots that we’ve seen from the beginning, with a collection of customizable widgets that display a variety of at-a-glance info and access to commonly used applications. The presence of a MyFaves icon ensures compatibility with T-Mobile’s unlimited calling service. The next screen shot gives a bit of a look into the Maps application, though it doesn’t reveal a whole lot of useful info. We do see reference to, YouTube, Gmail, and GCal, but Google Application interfacing is no secret. Finally, we’ve got a look at both the browser and the landscape mode for image viewing. Again, nothing revolutionary, though the browser does appear to be formatted similarly to Google’s iPhone-specific mode.

I am a huge fan of the Apple iPhone which has also made me a fan of the Apple MacBook Pro, Apple TV, and dare I say anything that is created by Apple due to their incredible ability to get how to design beautiful, highly usable products. So I am not going to be easily converted but I do use Google Search, Adwords, Adsense, Gmail, and more on a daily basis which makes me very interested in this product. Although, Google Search is Apple-esque in it’s simplicity; many of their other products lack the attention to detail, consistency and user experience polish that Apple brings to the table. Overall, I am excited about the fact that this creates healthy competition for Apple and should continue to drive industry and, more importantly, user innovation. Both mobile phone platforms offer the ability for users to develop applications which is extremely exciting and will likely open the door for ideas that large companies like Apple and Google never could have imagined.

Want to learn more?
Check out Google’s Open Handset Alliance Project which is a group of 30+ tech and mobile companies that developed this first complete, open, and free mobile platform that the G1 phone runs on. http://code.google.com/android/

T-Mobile said it will begin selling the Google G1 for $179 with a two-year contract. The device hits U.S. stores Oct. 22 and heads to Britain in November and other European countries early next year.

The data plan for the phone will cost $25 per month on top of the calling service, at the low end of the range for data plans at U.S. wireless carriers. And at $179, the Google G1 is $20 less than the least expensive Apple iPhone in the U.S.

Want to learn more about the Iphone? http://www.apple.com/iphone/