Google's bid to dominate the mobile phone operating software market got a boost today when Taiwanese handset maker HTC unveiled the third phone based on the Internet search giant's technology.
Starting this spring, the Magic will be available exclusively to Vodafone customers in Great Britain, Germany, Spain and France and non-exclusively in Italy. Pricing was not disclosed. HTC executives, speaking at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, said they were working on making the device available in the United States.
The tablet-style smartphone features a 3.2-inch touch screen display that, like other high-end phones launched, has a resemblance to the top-selling Apple iPhone.
The Magic can access email options such as Google Mail, POP3 and IMAP as well as Google Talk for instant messaging. Popular Google applications are also integrated such as Google Maps and Google Search as well as access to video sharing site YouTube.
It has access to Google's upcoming Android Market, an online application marketplace similar to Apple's popular App Store.
Google is hoping to establish its operating system as an industry standard, which would help drive users to its various services including Internet search, maps and chat.
HTC CEO Peter Chou stressed that people would increasingly access the Internet from their mobile devices rather than in an office or at home -- particularly in the developing world.
"There is a generation of people from various parts of the world who have never experienced Internet on a PC yet, but they will experience Internet on these mobile devices," Chou said.
Google has recognized this, which is the reason it is so keen to establish itself and its applications in the mobile industry.
Pinning its hopes for Android's success on a multitude of phones from different manufacturers, Google is expected to unveil several other Android-based phones in 2009.
