Yesterday, the highly anticipated launch of the Android phone took place in New York. Google's first-born “baby” phone was officially named G1, and is manufactured by HTC. You can now pre-order it from T-Mobile, but pay attention and act quick, as only limited quantities are available.

U.S users can get this phone for only $179, with a two-year voice and data contract. Starting with November, G1 will become available in the United Kingdom as well, also only in T-Mobile, and across Europe (Germany, Austria, Czech Republic and the Netherlands) in the first quarter of 2009.

This buzz around the Android phone did not build up until the launch of the iPhone – so, if you don't already know, you might wonder what makes G1 so special. First of all, it's a game changing phone, since it's the first one to run Android, which is an open source version of Linux especially designed for mobiles by Google. This means that you can customize the device to your needs, through applications that you developed or have downloaded from the Internet. The good thing is that most Linux based applications come free of charge or really cheap, so you will not have any problems with making your phone unique.

Also, the G1 uses all of Google's online services like Gmail, YouTube, Google Talk, Google Maps with Street View, Amazon MP3 and Google's own Android Market, which will bring third party applications on the handset. G1 also has another unique feature in the embedded compass that syncs with Maps Street View, thus allowing live 360 degrees cityscape browsing, just by turning the handset around.

When you buy the G1, you get a 3.2 inch touchscreen display, QWERTY keyboard, quad-band GSM/EDGE and dual-band UMTS support, GPS, Wi-Fi, and also a built-in accelerometer. Unfortunately, the camera won't allow for video recording, while Bluetooth support is limited to mono headset use only, meaning you don't have any stereo playing or file transfers. The good news in this respect is that G1 will be enhanced later on.

The initial reaction of many was that the G1 was nothing but a poor replica of the iPhone, but I really don't share their opinion. G1 is simply something else and, even if it doesn't have all the goodies you would expect, it still has plenty to show off. Even more, for the price you pay for it, I’d say you get plenty of good stuff.

There is one thing, though, that we must bear in mind related to the G1: it's the first phone from its generation so there is enough room for improvement – as a matter of fact, developers are already working on new applications. Then again, if you are a developer yourself, nothing stops you from building your own applications for the G1.