The launch of the Android (News - Alert) platform is being hailed as one of the most important events in the mobile phone industry since the release of Apple’s iPhone. Even if Android doesn't become a ubiquitous mobile platform, it’s still sure to re-stoke innovation.

 

T-Mobile (News - Alert) and Google this week unveiled the first phone powered by Android: the G1.

 

A key advantage of Android is that's an open platform based on Linux. This makes it more flexible than other mobile operating systems, meaning the developer community will have a great deal of freedom to do cool things with the software.

 

Android is designed to be versatile, and it is expected that many manufacturers will be putting it on lots of phones. It is also expected to become a commonly used platform for developers who want to distribute applications on millions of phones.

 

Since Android was developed by Google (News - Alert), phones using this platform also are likely to have the best integration with Google Apps — playing very well, as it were, with Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Maps and other applications from Google.

 

T-Mobile USA is the U.S. operation of Deutsche Telekom AG’s (News - Alert) mobile communications business, and a wholly owned subsidiary of T-Mobile International.

 

At the end of second quarter 2008, T-Mobile USA had 31.5 million customers, using the GSM mobile standard.

 

 

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