Mobile service provider T-Mobile on Tuesday launched the first cell phone powered by a operating system development by Internet giant Google in the United States, and the companies expect to sell at least 200,000 of the handset by the year end.

The new G1 phone running Google’s Android software is displayed in New York Sept. 23, 2008. T-Mobile USA, a Deutsche Telekom AG unit, will sell the first phone powered by Google Inc’s Android operating system under the brand name T-Mobile G1, said its partner Amazon.com Inc on Tuesday. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

The device will be the first Google phone available in the market after Google announced last year to develop an open-source operation system called Android for wireless devices that could encourage new application development.

“With Android, we’ve opened the mobile Web not only for millions of users, but also to mobilize the developer community that understands the next most important platform in the world rests in the palm of our hand,” said Andy Rubin, Google’s senior director of mobile platforms, in a statement.

T-Mobile is expected to charge customers 179 U.S. dollars for aG1 handset with a two-year contract, or 20 dollars less than the iPhone, in an effort to lure new customers and compete with the popular Apple product.

T-Mobile, which is owned by Germany’s Deutsche Telekom AG, said it will launch the device in Britain in November and in other European markets early next year. Industry analysts estimate that as many as 9 million units of G1 phone would be sold globally for next year.

VietNamNet/Xinhuanet