After the successful introduction of the G1 to the US-American and British markets this fall, T-Mobile has finally announced its release in Germany — for the first quarter of the new year, 2009. Last Thursday in Berlin, T-Mobile showed the German version of the device. Apart from necessary localizations, there’s hardly any difference to the previous versions. Presumably, the German G1 is going to be released during CeBit 2009 (March 3^rd to 8^th). In fact, it’s already present on T-Mobile’s official German website.

The G1 is “the world’s first Android phone”, appealing with its extensive desktop and online functionality. In contrast to e.g. the iPhone, the device is equipped with not only a touchscreen but also a “full-fledged” physical alphanumeric keyboard — displaying a QWERTZ layout in the German version, of course. However, due to licensing matters, G1 users for the time being will have to do without any Flash-based applications, which in the face of their omnipresence in the WWW could turn out as an irksome limitation.

 

The Android desktop with its typical clock

As everyone knows, first isn’t necessarily best. While the competition still lags behind, they aren’t sleeping either. Conveniently, Taiwanese cell phone forge HTC — the company behind the G1, which not coincidentally is akin to the HTC Touch Pro — is planning their own, independent Android phone for mid 2009. As of early December, Google et al. have got another big name joining their open source cell phone club, the Open Handset Alliance: Sony Ericsson. Thus, according to Sony Ericsson head of development Rikko Sakaguchi, the development of their own Android phone till summer 2009 ranks high on the company’s to-do list. For now though, it remains unclear when alternatives to the G1 can be expected to arrive in Germany.

As far as foreseeable, Lenovo and China Mobile’s ambitious oPhone project will likely stay exclusive to the Far East. Inside the oPhone’s home-made operating system OMS (Open Mobile System), there, too, is said to be a modified Android puttering about.

This fall, Zelfi’s innovative location-based gaming platform JOYity was released as one of the first extending applications for Android phones and is currently available via Android Marketplace exclusively. Versions for other cell phone systems like the Apple iPhone are planned for early 2009.