Google Android just five weeks away?
T-Mobile asks $399, Google demands your soul
This week, another unnamed source told TmoNews - a T-Mobile obsessed blog - that the American wireless carrier will offer up the first Android phone for pre-sale on 17 September.
Back in June, sources told The Wall Street Journal that Google's currently closed open mobile platform could be delayed until 2009.
But this "trusted source" says that T-Mobile's Android - manufactured by Taiwan-based outfit HTC - will retail at a hefty $399. TmoNews calls the phone "the G1" - "codename or real name, we're not sure" - but it would appear this is the so-called HTC Dream that recently popped up on YouTube.
The G1 pre-sale will last for one week, the blog says, and during that time, the phone will be available only to existing T-Mobile customers. And it seems those existing customers can grab one for $250 below the retail price. "Other customers interested in the G1 may have to wait until beginning/mid October before a national public launch," TmoNews continues.
The blog goes on to say that the G1 will include a 5 x 3in touchscreen, a slide-out Qwerty keyboard (as seen in that blurred YouTube video), and a three-megapixel camera.
Our favorite bit: TmoNews says that you won't be able to use the G1 without a Google Gmail account. We plan to boycott the phone for that reason alone. ®
COMMENTS
Too bad
At least it can hoped that the GPhone will work pretty much as advertised, unlike the 3G (oops...2.5G) iPhone; however, being mandatorily tied to a gmail account (which I reject unequivocally) will mean I'll never have one, just like I will never have an iPhone due to the mandatory iTunes account (I manage my iPod with other software).
If they were to make the gmail account optional, that would be another matter, but I absolutely refuse to participate in any mandatory "package deal" setups that any manufacturer tries to force upon me just to get access to their "whoop te do". Especially with the way "the new Microsoft" (aka Google) is so lax about the security and privacy of their users' data.
@ David Barr, re: El Reg's name for Google Phone
Given the way Gmail handles peoples' supposedly private email, might I suggest: the Judas Phone?
Hope someone at
xda-developers ports it to the Athena.
@David Barr - the Paranoid Phone?
What will it be named on here as?
Since there's an army of Apple Sycophants and an army of Google Sycophants... the iPhone gets called the Jesus Phone here.. what will the Reg call the Google Phone?
@James Basset
I did the maths too. It all sounds like sales bo**ocks, doesn't it. Unless they mean 3cm x 5cm? That would be about 2.3 inches diagonal.
The alien has trouble with earth-style units too
