Virtual keypads set to grace Android phones

Ever since Apple’s iPhone hit the market, some people have loved using a virtual keypad. Others have hated it.

Owners of Google’s new G1 Android phones could soon have a choice to use either the existing slide-out QWERTY keyboard or a virtual keyboard like the iPhone’s.

Google has added “soft keyboards” to its road map of future software releases. The new software hook is expected to be available for phone manufacturers as part of the source code in the first three months of 2009.

While there are many features to love about the G1, which is the first Android phone to hit the market, there are several items missing. A virtual keypad is one of them.

Without the touchscreen keypad, people have to slide out the QWERTY keypad to send text messages, IMs, and e-mail.

Meet the T-Mobile G1

Uh, c’mon guys — this is a little ridiculous. Now typically, you want to keep this sort of thing under wraps until the day of your event, but it seems like the cats and kittens at T-Mobile can’t contain themselves. Yes, you’re looking at the first official product shot of the G1 Android phone ever. Enjoy it.

Update: TmoNews has just uncovered new specs and info on the phone. Here’s what they’ve got so far: the phone is 4.6 x 2.16 x 0.63 inches, weighs 5.6 ounces, features a 480 x 320 HVGA display, sports 3G (obviously), GPS, has a 3.1-megapixel camera, supports up to 8GB of memory (though no format is mentioned), and will feature 5 hours of talktime with 130 hours of standby. Strangely, the phone won’t do video capture (what?), won’t have stereo Bluetooth, will require a Gmail account, and won’t be sold at stores outside of a 2-5 mile radius of T-Mobile’s 3G coverage areas. That last bit sounds a little odd to us, but we’re guessing a lot of the functionality of this device will be shot in non-3G regions.

TMobile G1 Phone, Google’s Android-Powered Cell Phone, Unveiled

NEW YORK — The first phone that harnesses Google Inc.’s ambition to make the Internet easy to use on the go was revealed Tuesday, and it looks a lot like an iPhone.

T-Mobile USA showed off the G1, a phone that, like Apple Inc.’s iPhone, has a large touch screen. But it also packs a trackball, a slide-out keyboard and easy access to Google’s e-mail and mapping programs.

T-Mobile said it will begin selling the G1 for $179 with a two-year contract. The device hits U.S. stores Oct. 22 and heads to Britain in November and other European countries early next year.

The phone will be sold in T-Mobile stores only in the U.S. cities where the company has rolled out its faster, third-generation wireless data network. By launch, that will be 21 cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Houston and Miami.

In other areas, people will be able to buy the phone from T-Mobile’s Web site. The phone does work on T-Mobile’s slower data network, but it’s optimized for the faster networks. It can also connect at Wi-Fi hotspots.

The data plan for the phone will cost $25 per month on top of the calling service, at the low end of the range for data plans at U.S. wireless carriers. And at $179, the G1 is $20 less than the least expensive iPhone in the U.S.

Android, the free software powering the G1, is a crucial building block in Google’s efforts to make its search engine and other services as accessible on cell phones as they already are on personal computers. The company believes it eventually might make more money selling ads that get shown on mobile devices than on PCs, a channel that will generate about $20 billion in revenue this year.

Both Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp. also are investing heavily in the mobile market in hopes of preventing Google from extending the dominance it enjoys in searches initiated on PCs.

Google Android-Powered Phones Get Delayed – Rumours

Despite of expectations and promises, the long-awaited phones featuring Google Android operating system (OS) may note emerge on the market until sometime in late Q1 2009 since handset maker High Tech Computer (HTC) has certain software related problems.

According to Trip Chowdhry, an analyst of Global Equities Research, HTC is “having structural problems to incorporate Google’s demanded feature set”. Apparently, HTC is “demanding a guaranteed minimum revenue surety from Google”, from which Mr. Chowdhry concludes that “HTC does not think there will be enough demand for GPhone,” reports Barrons web-site.

The fact that Google demands pre-specified feature-set from the Android-powered phones is definitely positive, as it greatly eases choice for end-users. However, the fact that HTC is unsure about the success of the so-called Gphone is alarming.

In fact, according to the analyst, who cites industry sources, Google Android operating system “is not able to attract enough developers because toolkits offered by Microsoft, Apple, Research in Motion, and Nokia’s Symbian software group, have sucked up software developers’ attention”. This is exactly a thing to worry about: without third-party applications many end-users may not become interested in Google-powered devices, not only because they are used to their Blackberry or Nokia, but also because of lack of software for the Android platform.

Google itself denied the report from the analyst and said that the Android remains on-track.

“We remain on schedule to deliver the first Android-based handset this year and we’re very excited to see the momentum continuing to build behind the Android platform among carriers, handset manufacturers, developers and consumers,” a spokesperson from Google said in an interview with News.com.

Google GPhone Used by Linux power?

Google’s first mobile phone will run a Linux operating system on a Texas Instruments “Edge” chipset, and will likely ship to T-Mobile and Orange customers in the Spring of 2008, according to unconfirmed reports. “GPhone” call minutes and text messages reportedly will be funded by mobile advertising.

News of the so-called “GPhone” or “G-Phone” broke quietly about two weeks ago in the island nation of Singapore, where Jennifer Tan of Reuters subsidiary Anian Research filed a report on July 12.

Tan cited “industry sources,” “U.S. sources,” and “manufacturing and component supply chain sources” in backing her assertion that after year-long delays finding a manufacturer, Google contracted Taiwan-based smartphone maker High Tech Computer (HTC) to design its phone hardware. HTC is best-known for its Windows Mobile smartphones, however, and Tan offered no conjecture about who might supply the phone’s Linux-based operating system.

Additional details reported by Tan include:

• The G-Phone will have a large color screen with a predictive Qwerty keypad to simplify Google searching
• A follow-up 3G-capable model (Edge is considered “2.75G”) will use a Qualcomm chipset
• Scheduled for production in Q1 of 2006, the Google phone will hit retail shelves next spring
• Call minutes and text messages are to be funded by “mobile advertising”
• Google originally hoped to launch a phone this year, but was delayed by “difficulties in nailing down a deal with a handset maker”
• T-Mobile will carrier the phone in the U.S., along with (possibly) Orange in other markets

Tan quotes Susquehanna Financial Group analyst Marianne Wolk as having said, “A mobile offering would be consistent with Google’s goal to make search accessible. We believe Google would design a solution to facilitate greater use of Google Search and other applications like Google Talk, Gmail, Google Maps, encourage wireless video, and leverage this usage to hasten the market for mobile advertising.”

Google itself has declined to comment on rumors it plans to produce a phone, Tan reported.

Tan’s coverage also includes an overview of Google’s financial outlook, and its prospects for success in the mobile phone marketplace.