Android smartphone soon to kick iPhone

Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile unit is set to start selling a mobile phone based on Google Inc's Android software within weeks, according to people familiar with the matter. "T-Mobile and Google will be making an announcement this month in New York City," two people told Reuters on Wednesday, adding Sept. 23 was a likely date for the announcement. 

T-Mobile declined to comment and Google was not immediately available. In February, T-Mobile Chief Executive Hamid Akhavan said at a trade fair in Barcelona the company planned to launch a device operating on the Android software platform in the fourth quarter, which Akhavan had promised would not disappoint. 

"Early results we have seen have given us all the confidence that it will be groundbreaking," he said at the time. The device, dubbed the Google "Dream" phone, is being made by smartphone maker High Tech Computer Corp and is expected to challenge Apple Inc's iPhone as well as other smartphones that run software from Palm Inc , Research in Motion, Microsoft Corp and Nokia Oyj. 

It will operate using T-Mobile's third-generation network and feature a slide-out keypad. Apple's successful iPhone uses a touch-screen keyboard. Last November, Google introduced its highly anticipated Android software system for designing mobile-phone devices, in a move it promised could help the cellphone industry make the Internet work as smoothly on phones as on computers.

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