Senior executives from T-Mobile, Google and HTC officially launched the ‘G1’ – the first device based on Google’s Android mobile operating system – at an event in New York earlier today. T-Mobile USA’s chief technology and innovation officer, Cole Brodman, said the device would retail for US$179 in the US and would commercially launch on October 22 via selected T-Mobile stores and other mobile retailers. Christopher Schlaffer, chief technology officer of T-Mobile-owner Deutsche Telekom, said the device would debut in the UK on T-Mobile in early November, and across the rest of T-Mobile’s markets in Europe in the first quarter of next year. Brodman said that the US launch would be supported by two new data plans; one will cost US$25 for unlimited web and some messaging, while the US$35 package will offer total unlimited access. However, both will need to be bought alongside a voice plan and the device will be SIM-locked to T-Mobile. He added that T-Mobile USA aims to turn on 3G in 27 markets by the middle of November in order to support the rollout, reaching around 80 percent of its customer base. A marketing campaign will also launch in the US in October. “It will be the biggest market campaign we’ve ever launched for a mobile device,” Brodman said.

Among the applications that will be preloaded on the G1 will be the Amazon MP3 music store, which offers a library of 6 million DRM-free MP3 songs from all four major music labels and many independents. In a press release, Amazon said that over 1 million songs are available at US$0.89, while most albums are priced from US$5.99 to US$9.99.