Unlocked Android G1 to launch this month, for £285

December 8th, 2008 by Peter

If you’ve been longing to put an Android phone through its paces, but don’t want to sign up for the T-Mobile service, the only option has been to obtain a code to unlock the phone – but this comes with serious compromises in functionality.

Now, if you’re prepared to shell out £265 (plus a £20 sign-up fee), you can get a G1 with its hardware and SIM completely unlocked, and no need to commit to a T-Mobile data contract for two years (although the minimum contract was reduced recently from £40 to £30 a month, that still makes the unlocked version cheaper over a year).

Officially, the unlocked G1 – the HTC handset that is currently the only device available based on Google’s Android software platform – is for developers only, but anyone can register as a developer for a one-off fee of $25 (likely to be £20 in the UK). This option will also be available to users in countries where there is no T-Mobile network – 18 countries at first, with more to follow next year, including India.

The Android DevPhone 1 is SIM and hardware unlocked, but otherwise identical to the T-Mobile model. This shows Google’s level of control over Android – T-Mobile seems to have had little say in the decision to unleash an unlocked G1 just as the operator is reaching the peak of the product’s sales cycle, pre-Christmas. It also shows off Google’s determination to take a different approach to the tightly closed strategy of Apple for the iPhone – and to rely on this contrast heavily in its marketing and its appeal to developers.

To get a DevPhone 1, users need to register as Android developers at the Android market applications store site. There is a limit of one device per developer account. The scheme will be available initially in 18 markets –the US, UK, Germany, Japan, India, Canada, France, Taiwan, Spain, Australia, Singapore, Switzerland, Netherlands, Austria, Sweden, Finland, Poland and Hungary.