T-Mobile G1, first Android-powered handset announced; platform to be flexible

When Cole Brodeman, the chief technology officer for T-Mobile took the stage today at the T-Mobile G1 event, he said that today's announcement would be a game changer to how mobile phones and the Internet "bring us together." He was right.

Andy Rubin, a representative from Deutsche Telecom and Peter Chow from HTC were also present, and were recognized as pioneers in mobile Internet. But it is the partnership between Google and T-Mobile that has everyone talking. It is by means of this partnership that the same device could be launched on both sides of the Atlantic.

In a seeming wheel-o-speakers, they discussed briefly what each company has brought to the table. How T-Mobile were the first operator in the world to open up the mobile Internet, how they are a founding member of the Open Handset Alliance, how Google is a company founded on the Internet. And Peter Chow congratulated T-Mobile for their "drive for innovation, quality and dedication" and called Android "unlike anything else on the market."

Developers will be able to develop on the G1, but also modify the platform itself to make it better, a real change in how people approach mobile devices and mobile platforms.

Google believes Android is future-proof because of this fact and so set the tone for the event. Stay tuned for more live coverage.