T mobile phone G1 will arrive in Europe under Deutsche Telekom’s corporate umbrella

T-Mobile G1 (aka the “Google phone”), currently available only in USA and United Kingdom, is getting ready for its launch in other European countries where it will be available soon.

The mobile is manufactured by the Taiwanese company HTC and it is the first phone that makes use of the mobile operating system developed by Google: the Android platform. Its launch was not preceded by a lot of expectation when compared to the iPhone’s launch, although it was acknowledged as the main iPhone competitor. However, G1 is not as popular as iPhone, which became the best-selling phone in United States during the third quarter of 2008. Maybe, the main reason is that G1 has a very limited sales channel.

According to Hamid Akhavan, head of Deutsche Telekom’s wireless unit T-Mobile, G1 will be introduced “by 30 January in the Netherlands, Czech Republic and Austria”. Also, it will be available in Germany from 2 February and, one month later, it will be available in Poland, according to Reuters. For other countries, like Spain, the official launch date has not yet been announced.

Deutsche Telekom has sold about 400,000 phones. The company markets these phones in USA by using its subsidiary T-Mobile International AG. There, G1 costs about $179 and customers are required to sign up for a 2-year contract with T-Mobile. The price is expected to be lower in Germany than in the USA.