T-Mobile reveals new G1 Andriod smart phone
T-Mobile today announced the international launch of the world's first Android-powered mobile phone in partnership with Google. The handset will be available from next month not just in the USA, but also in Europe.
"We are proud that T-Mobile is the first operator in the world to launch an Android-powered mobile device," said Christopher Schläffer, Group Product and Innovation Officer of Deutsche Telekom. "Since 2005, Google has been an established partner in T-Mobile's groundbreaking approach to bringing the open mobile Internet to the mass market. With the T-Mobile G1 we are continuing our strong tradition of being pioneers in the world of the open Internet."
"Increasingly, connectivity does not just mean a phone call, but rather access to the world's information," said Andy Rubin, senior director of mobile platforms for Google. "Today's news signifies an important first step for the Open Handset Alliance: with Android, we've opened the mobile web not only for millions of users, but also to mobilize the developer community that understands the next most important platform in the world rests in the palm of our hand."
T-Mobile customers in the U.S. have the opportunity to pre-order the T-Mobile G1, in limited quantities, beginning today. The device will be available at select T-Mobile retail stores and online in the U.S. beginning Oct. 22, for a price of $179 with a two-year voice and data agreement. The T-Mobile G1 will also be available in the United Kingdom beginning in November, and across Europe in the first quarter of 2009. Countries include Germany, Austria, Czech Republic and the Netherlands.
Update:
T-Mobile has given its data usage cap proposed for the G1 Android phone a second thought. This was in response to widespread concern that a 1GB 'soft' limit was going to be a bit restrictive.
The company distributed a statement on Wednesday saying that it has removed the 1GB 'soft cap' that it planned to impose on the data usage of G1 owners. The carrier had planned to throttle the data connection speed to a paltry 50Kbps for those who exceeded 1GB of data usage in a month, which isn't that far-fetched for the early-adopter crowd.
Here's the full statement:
"Our goal, when the T-Mobile G1 becomes available in October, is to provide affordable, high-speed data service allowing customers to experience the full data capabilities of the device and our 3G network. At the same time, we have a responsibility to provide the best network experience for all of our customers so we reserve the right to temporarily reduce data throughput for a small fraction of our customers who have excessive or disproportionate usage that interferes with our network performance or our ability to provide quality service to all of our customers.
We removed the 1GB soft limit from our policy statement, and we are confident that T-Mobile G1 customers will enjoy the high speed of data access over our 3G network. The specific terms for our new data plans are still being reviewed and once they are final we will be certain to share this broadly with current customers and potential new customers."
Find out more here...
Labels: industry insight, T-Mobile
posted by MobileBroadbandInfo @ 7:57 PM
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