T-Mobile, Google Unveil the G1 Android-Based Handset

The browser is not, repeat NOT Chrome, as everyone assumed, but rather something more optimized for the mobile screen. The Google people termed it “Chrome lite.” It allows access to the open Internet, supports Flash and Java (for YouTube addicts) and solves the issue of peering at text on the small screen with an intuitive zoom function.

On the hardware side, the G1 is thin and sleek, with a touch screen that supports not just finger-slide control a la iPhone, but also something that Google calls the “long press”: you hold a virtual button or a screen down a little longer and it takes you to related content or a map or whatever the application has built into it. It also has a screen view that rotates depending on how you hold the device, like the iPhone. Unlike the iPhone, it has a much-appreciated slide-out QWERTY keyboard with real buttons for fast texting, e-mail and IM. It also has a camera for video and still shots, a built-in MP3 player, GPS, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. And, it’s a quad-band world phone, and of course will make use of the 27 3G markets T-Mobile plans to have up and running by mid-November.

What does this all mean for the smartphone market? In particular, how will it stand up to the iPhone: isn’t this the real elephant in the room? The G1 isn’t the first to take on the ubiquitous iPhone, but it’s certainly differentiating itself in some important ways. One, the previously mentioned applications strategy has legs. Two, it has the Google name associated with it, which has as much brand equity as Apple and certainly a heck of a lot more than other iPhone killers like the Samsung Instinct from Sprint-Nextel Corp. or the LG Voyager from Verizon Wireless. And three, Google and T-Mobile plan an integrated print and TV marketing push that will be the largest T-Mobile has ever done to date.

In the “cons” column, there’s a pesky lack of business applications support. Users can read Microsoft Word documents and PDF files, but there’s no support for Microsoft Exchange and it doesn’t synch with desktop files. This is a gaping hole that Google expects will be filled by an enterprising soul who wants to develop such business functionality. Then there’s security and management: two topics conspicuously not addressed in Tuesday’s presentation.

What about the experts? All in all the analysts seem to think the G1 a strong effort but are stopping shy of getting giddy over it.

So we’re waiting to see how the G1 is received. Meanwhile, if sometime you find yourself faced with the choice between watching “America’s Got Talent” and counting how many times the word “open” was used in the Webcast, well, you know what to do.

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