August 19, 2008
THE T-Mobile unit of Deutsche Telekom will start selling a mobile phone using Google's Android software in the fourth quarter, offering an alternative to handsets made by Apple and Research in Motion, maker of the BlackBerry.
The introduction, announced by T-Mobile chief executive Hamid Akhavan at the annual Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February, is still going according to plan, said Maika-Alexander Stangenberg, a spokesman at Bonn-based T-Mobile.The New York Times reported T-Mobile USA would be the first seller of Google's mobile phone, to be made by HTC.
Deutsche Telekom, Europe's largest phone company, said last month sales of the new iPhone, which runs on so-called third-generation networks, beat its targets. Complaints about poor reception and disconnected calls have since appeared on websites and blogs for Apple users.
Stangenberg wouldn't comment on the report. T-Mobile sells smartphones made by HTC under its own brand.
The Taiwanese company is a member of the Open Handset Alliance, which is developing the Android platform.
The Android phone may be announced in September, depending on how quickly the Federal Communications Commission certifies that the software and phone meet network standards.
It will probably go on sale in the US as early as October, according to the report.