Android 18

Deutsche Telecoms-owned T-Mobile has been rebranding some of the finest Windows mobile phone products from Taiwan’s leading smartphone maker HTC and it wasn’t surprising that it would be rebranding its first Android handset from the same OEM.

When the Taiwan-based HTC supplied the carrier with the HTC Dream to be rebranded as the G1, just about every mobile phone pundit online assumed it was the Google phone. To some extent it was.  It’s the first smartphone in the world to run Google’s open source Linux-based Android operating system which was then in the 1.5 Cupcake version.

Pioneering with Android

As OEM to many mobile gadgets running in the Windows platform, HTC was somewhat of a strange choice to supply T-Mobile’s first Android phone, much less as the world first Android handset, but apart from being a loyal OEM to T-Mobile with many HTC handsets rebranded under the GSM network carrier’s name, it was really a prelude of things to come.

The venerable leader in Windows smartphones would soon throw half its support on the emerging Android technology while it hedges on the Windows platform in the hope the new WinPho7 OS can provide an upgrade path to its Windows product line.  After all, HTC and Microsoft do enjoy a mutually rewarding experience with HTC serving as the official test bed for MS mobile systems.

After the G1, the carrier has had some new Android smartphones joining its stable. It is perhaps the only carrier with the most Androids rebranded under its name.  You now have the Pulse Mini, the myTouch 3G Fender Edition, the Pulse, the G2 Touch also marketed at the HTC Hero and the myTouch 3G.  It won’t end there as the Android trend is expected to grow further in 2010.

Enter Google’s Nexus One

But the T-Mobile G1 is not going to carry the distinction as Google’s phone.  The largest search engine in the world plans to have its own under the Google name.  This would be the HTC Passion. This time around, the OEM would not be offering the Passion to consumers directly as it gave exclusive rights to Google to rebranded it as the Nexus One. Unfortunately, T-Mobile didn’t get exclusive distribution as Google preferred to open it up to various carriers starting with Vodafone in Europe

Looking Forwards

The carrier won’t be around at lot longer as a new company will soon be out from the merger of Germany’s Deutsche Telecoms and the France Telecoms. Their operations in the UK, namely T- Mobile and Orange, respectively, will soon come under one roof but the new company won’t be operational until after 18 months from its announcement early April.  Rumors have it that the new company will be called the Magenta Telecoms and both companies are starting to make the market rounds making people more aware of the impending new company.

Little is known of the product strategy the new company will adopt except to say that the GSM networks of both Orange and T-Mobile will see better synergy and economies of scale to provide more affordable and efficient mobile network services.  There’s no reason to suspect that the rebranded models will be phased out or any redirection from the Android trend.

Originally published here.

Find out more about T-Mobile at www.moby1.co.uk. They compare contracts for the phones on the T-Mobile network. You can also search through the best Pay as you go deals on offer.

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