October 15, 2008 by Matt Thomas
The T-Mobile G1, the world’s first phone based on the Android mobile operating platform is creating something of a word of mouth storm. There’s still a week to go before the device is actually available but pre-orders of 1.5 million have been reported already.
There’s enough of a buzz around the phone to predict with some confidence that, initially at least, the phone should provide strong competition for both the iPhone and the Blackberry. Whether the initial buzz will be maintained once people have a chance to actually use it is another matter, though the omens look decidedly good.
The Android phone is unique in that it operates on a completely new platform, Android, which has been designed specifically with this purpose in mind by Google and the Mobile Handset Alliance – a collection of top technology companies. Access to Android has been pretty open since its birth with several software development kits being released at various stages of the platform’s development. The software is also going to be completely open source, in an effort to further encourage innovation on the part of developers.
So far the strategy appears to be working, with over 1,700 new applications ready to go. Considering the phone isn’t even out yet, this is a staggering amount and may well have something to do with the amount of pre orders.
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