Google's Debut 'Not Just Another iPhone Clone'

The long-anticipated Google phone debuts today, and it’s “not just another iPhone clone,” Anita Hamilton writes in Time. The $179 HTC Dream from T-Mobile is the first handheld to run Android, Google’s mobile platform offering 3G connectivity and a similar application-driven interface. But the Dream offers both a touch-screen and a physical keyboard, and offers the flexibility of running more than one application at once.

Google’s Android Market, the equivalent of Apple’s App Store, allows creators to upload applications without Google’s blessing (Apple approves all apps before posting), allowing favorites to emerge more democratically—and unlike the App Store, all programs will be free. While T-Mobile is the only carrier currently offering a phone running Android, Google has invited all carriers to build handsets for the platform. (More Google stories.)