Aplus.net Blog

In Miguel Helft’s tech blog for the New York Times, it was announced today that T-Mobile will be unveiling details of its new, highly anticipated, Google branded mobile phone next week in New York — on September 23, to be precise. The phone will be the first to utilize the Google Android application.

From the article:

The phone itself, which is being manufactured by HTC, is not likely to be available until next month. But top executives from Google, T-Mobile and other companies are expected to unveil details about the phone’s release date, pricing, plans and software at the press conference.

The phone is expected to become a challenger to other high-end phones like Apple’s iPhone and the BlackBerry line of devices made by Research In Motion. Other manufacturers and cellphone carriers are expected to introduce Android-based phones in the coming months.

Google is promoting Android phones as a way to ensure that its services, as well as other services that may use its advertising system, are available on a broad range of mobile phones. But Google also stands to benefit from the popularity of devices like the iPhone, whose PC-like Internet browser has greatly increased the likelihood that its owners will conduct Web searches on their phones.

Google also (probably) stands to benefit from a general sense of dissatisfaction with iPhones among the business community. Although Apple has eased that discontent a bit with the latest release of the model, there’s still a big potential market there that’s looking for an alternative to the consumer-oriented iPhone and the limitations of the BlackBerry (which is often said to have a browser that’s inadequate for high-powered business applications).

What do you think? Are you eagerly awaiting an alternative to your iPhone and/or BlackBerry? Are you anticipating this new phone, or do you think it’s unecessary? (And is anyone else starting to get a bit nervous at the prospect of Google dominating yet another product market?)