Google previews HTC Dream, first Android phone
The world may have caught a glimpse of the first, Google-powered mobile phone, after a senior executive appeared inadvertently to show it off in public yesterday – a week before its expected launch. The new mobile, called “Dream”, will use Android, Google’s new software for mobile phones, and will be manufactured by Taiwanese manufacturer HTC. It will be available exclusively on the T-Mobile network in the UK. It is thought that the phone will be available to buy as early as November, which would spark a fierce battle for customers with the Apple iPhone over the Christmas period. Google, which is notoriously secretive about new technology before it launches, would not confirm or deny whether the executive had shown off the new phone.
Seen yesterday by The Times at the Google Developer Day event at Wembley Stadium, the touchscreen device looked much like released photographs of the Dream. When asked to make a phone call on the Android phone, Mike Jennings, the Google executive who demonstrated the device, said: “I can’t show it off any more, I’ll be out of a job.” It is thought the new handset will have a slide-out Qwerty keyboard as well as built-in GPS (global positioning system). The phone is expected to be able to run Google’s range of web applications, including Gmail, Google Docs and Google Maps, and will likely also feature Google’s new web browser, Chrome. A source close to the launch was reported as saying that the company expects to ship 600,000 to 700,000 units of the new phone this year, whereas analysts have put the figure at 300,000 to 500,000 units.
Source: Times
Comments(26)
That is a phone … can’t wait
nice phone. great phone release by HTC.
DO WANT
Nice, comes out just in time for my upgrade…
I think this phone will sell like butter in the sun. The analysts probably underestimate this product.
I am looking for a phone that can be used to call people up and speak with them. Does this have talk/listen capabilities?
No videochat? No thanks. Just another gimmicky phone with no useful additions.
The concept of a phone IS having the ability to talk/listen. This isn’t the iPod Touch, which is an iPhone without the phone.
World domination is just around the corner
But beautiful domination…
@8
hey great! a new phone with keyboard, I was wondering why would so many brands clone the horrible iphone, looks like they are not all dumb
I have full faith in HTC, I own the Diamond and it’s way better than the iPhone. Somehow they have solved the puzzle for which other manufacturer’s doesn’t have a clue. Beautifully elegant yet rugged & unmatched performance – that’s HTC for me. I was a Nokia fanboy but HTC bowled be over!
@6 ROFLMAO. You are fricken histerical!
That is not even a picture of the dream….And Martin you put that out there, seem to me you are getting a little sloppy…And it hits USA first because we won’t get the Touch Diamond, Per what Tmobile just told me…Press release on the 23rd of this month and launch in Oct. and over seas gets it in Nov….The dream is why better then that phone you are showing Honestly the Dream looks like the Touch Hd, Htc told me that just because it looks like it doesn’t mean it is it…Aah okay if they say so….And here is the dream on Youtube being worked http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPIHeIRRDow&NR=1 from a worker at google…..So Martin if you are going to give out some news please research a little while doing so…
The dream is why better then that phone you are showing
^way (sorry type error)
@SAYWHY
Rather than just taking a pot shot at Martin if you bothered to actually research it yourself you would realise a few things.
The video you linked to shows a generic phone that HTC uses to test all sorts of phone features/software before deciding on a final design.Google are NOT the only ones who have been sent this particular phone but other’s also got it aswell.
The Reporter who saw the Dream basically said it DOES look like the picture posted by Martin with very few tweaks.
Martin said in the UK it will be exclusive to T-Mobile NOT that the UK would be the first to get it but just that only one network would have it for sale.
Kindly engage brain before posting next time….okay.
google is the next microsoft. hopefully they keep on expanding and bringing out new products and dont become stagnant
“notoriously secretive”? You f…. ignorant. Google sends public beta versions of all of their sh.. to everyone. They are NOT notoriously secretive.
Are you going to use “solution” and “business value” in all your articles now?
Hope it is better than Apple iPhone and costs at least 1 dollar less.
awesome…oh wait, it’s just another phone. Why has the world gone so phone obsessed? It’s like everyone is a teenaged girl all of a sudden.
That picture martin submitted is not the htc dream, google it yourself and find out.
this phone will drop in the u.s.a. mid october as tmobile is now rolling out their 3g network. specs on the phone are impressive, however there is no word yet on whether or not the phone will have gps since tmobile likes to use triangulation. i would have to say 80% – 90% chance it will cause i doubt google would release the first android phone without it.
and he should have checked the picture it would have taken two seconds.
Yet another phone with lacking features and services like video communication. Countries like korea and japan has had such things for several years now. US and Euro companies just nickel and dime you for every little thing. Makes it out of reach for a lot of people looking for reasonable service prices.
ill never use t-mobile again, had a bad experience with them and wont go back. their customer service are pigs and reception is non existant where i am. looks like a good phone but so what if the vendor sucks. If google had truly wanted to corner the market they would have gone multi network and sim free available immediately, which makes me think this is going to be yet another “must have” ridiculously expensive early adopter gadget to try and replicate iphone “kudos”
@MingMong
I normally don’t come back at people’s post, but I think I will at yours…Honestly what are you a Martin flunky? All of my info came from Tmobile and HTC, yes by phone calls, and not let me looking in a search engine, copy and paste…As for pot shots, nope I don’t take them, I’ll come straight at some ones neck, and trust me on that…Martins quote “It will be available exclusively on the T-Mobile network in the UK”… What is the key word in Martin’s line…Let me help you seeing you really don’t understand English do you…What does exclusively mean? Here is a Adjective for exclusive : Not divided or shared with others… Now here is a Noun : An exclusive right or privilege, as to market a product…So tell me MingMong how is this exclusively for the UK, when the good old USA is getting it first? What should of been stated as I stated above already that the USA gets it first then Europe and it is being made exclusively for the tmobile network. I don’t know about you, but I get mine next month, I’ll show you a picture of it if you want me to, hahahaha…And no the dream doesn’t look like the photo that Martin showed, not basically, not nothing, not even close it looks like the HD and even Joe at HTC stated that fact I will quote him as well “Just because it looks like the HD doesn’t mean it is it” I asked him the specs on the phone he started stuttering when he spoke to me so I told him that it’s normally a sign of lying when some starts to stutter in there conversation, that hasn’t been stuttering before, and that I was hanging up with him…This is coming from HTC on what the phone looks like…As for the Beta phone on youtube go take a look at that then the new HD and tell me what you think…Tell me if they are not closely related look at the buttons on the beta phone then look at the buttons on the HD…Sort of like a test car on a track we know what it is but it’s not complete… “Kindly engage brain before posting next time….okay” <-CALLED POT SHOT, now my turn for you…. You are a f..u..c..k..i..n joke…I don’t know what your name is but what you are doing is sucking on Martin’s DingDong “So Kindly get off your knees go brush your teeth for your breath smells like s..h..i..t from all that a..s..s you was eating…Why is the world full of d..i..c..k eaters I just really don’t understand…..Oh that’s not me taking pot shots but coming straight at you, and if you wasn’t a sheep lost then you would know that my brain was engaged…
@fox
Thank you at least someone else know how to search, I think some people get used to others helping them so much they forget how to do things on they own sort of like DingDong above taking for granted what one post on this sight as true, not knowing most of the information that comes on this site is copied and pasted from other sites, so no real work being put in, as for the 3g tmobile has done a couple city’s already it doesn’t hit my city Philly until December…As for the specs that I have seen, it will have gps and a compass, but that doesn’t mean they are true, but I could believe it seeing they are updating their network so they might not use triangle positioning any more. Once again that is just my thoughts…
I like it, and I don’t mind T-Mobile, but I am excited to see “other” vendors and hardware manufacturers use Googles new mobile operating system.
T-Mobile’s upcoming 2 year mandatory contract for this device is absurd.! So let me get this straight. You don’t guarantee your service to me? But I have to guarantee my business to you?
If your product is the best, and you keep it that way, you don’t need a contract.