T-Mobile announces second Google phone

T-Mobile announced the company's second Android phone, the MyTouch 3G, on Monday, based on the HTC Magic platform.

Based on the Google Ion/HTC Magic platform, the MyTouch 3G is a touch-screen, slab-style smart phone with improved multimedia features, Microsoft Exchange support, and some applications that will be exclusive to T-Mobile.

T-Mobile introduced the world's first Google Android phone, called the G1, last fall. And so far the company claims it has sold over 1 million devices.

The myTouch is manufactured by HTC and is essentially the same hardware design as the Google Ion, which is also known as the HTC Magic. The device was introduced at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February and is now being sold by Vodafone in various markets around the world.

The T-Mobile myTouch 3G is a much slimmer phone than its predecessor, but otherwise utilizes a very similar feature set to drive the Android platform. But it features a large 3.2-inch touch screen with a resolution of 320 x480 pixels and no physical keyboard. The phone offers network support for 3G and Wi-Fi.

The myTouch comes with 512 Megabytes of internal memory and supports microSD for external storage. The device will ship with a 4GB microSD card, but customers can add more storage if they'd like.

T-Mobile is stressing customization with the T-Mobile myTouch 3G, and to that end the carrier is including an app called Sherpa. The company claims that Sherpa will somehow monitor users habits to create a more personalized, custom experience.

The myTouch looks much like an iPhone and has many of the same features, including a similarly sized screen. It will cost $199 with a two-year contract. It will ship with software that allows it to connect to corporate e-mail servers. Such software became available for download to the G1 some months after it launched.

(June 22, 2009)

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