This evening (Oct 21), a San Francisco mobile phone shop will be the first to sell the Google Android-powered phone eleven hours ahead of the rest of the USA.

Wired Say:

The T-Mobile store located at 699 Market St. will begin selling the HTC T-Mobile G1 on Tuesday at 6 p.m. PDT. A T-Mobile spokeswoman is advising interested buyers to line up early, as supply is limited. She did not specify how many units the store will be carrying.

All the other T-Mobile shops that are selling the G Phone (only areas that have 3g coverage will be able to buy Google phones for now)  will open early at 8 a.m. PDT Wednesday to begin selling the phone.  The Uk’s first phones are due in approximately a month.

The conference was presented by one representative from T-Mobile Google and and one from HTC (Google’s hardware partner). There was also a visit from Larry and Sergey (the Google founders) who arrived on rollerblades!

Here is a quick summary of the Google Phone findings:

Unlike Apple’s iPhone, the T-mobile G1 will launch both sides of the Atlantic this year, although T-Mobile customers can order the Google phone today.

The commercial launch date is October 22nd for the US, with the UK in November and the rest of Europe in Q1 2009.

T-Mobile G1 Features at a glance:

touch screen
gesture control
drag and drop
one click ordering on amazon
multi-tasking
full slide out qwerty keyboard
links phone no’s/address to Google maps
dedicated button for Google applications
triband in USA, Quad in the rest of the world

There is an Android marketplace for games and new applications in a similar vein to the iPhone. The Browser is webkit which is the base of chrome (Google’s new web browser), its a chrome lite built for mobile devices.

Will play WMA plus MP3’s although users will have to unlock the iTunes content as Apple’s DRM gets in the way.

And this is how it looks in the flesh a bit chunkier than an iPhone, but with a pull out keyboard…..

Thanks to the Gizmodo guys for the pic’s.

Made by HTC in Taiwan and this is a direct competitor to Apple’s iPhone. The G1 is the first phone to use Googles Android operating system. T-Mobile is the launch partner in the United States.

The new Google phone is rumoured to have a touch screen like the iPhone but includes a slide-out Qwerty keypad. The phone has previously been referred to as the HTC Dream and the “Kila”, the project name given by T-Mobile.

Google announced its plans for Android last year alongside the unveiling of the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of mobile phone makers and networks whose stated purpose is to “accelerate innovation in mobile and offer consumers a richer, less expensive, and better mobile experience”.

As part of this plan, they made Android a so-called “open platform”, which means no one is charged to use it either in a device or as a basis for writing applications. As a result, anyone can write programs that will run on an Android phone - from maps and calendars to word-processing software and games.

A similar developer community has already sprung up around the iPhone, whose software is controlled by Apple although anyone can write applications that will run on it. Users of the phone and the iPod Touch have downloaded the 3,000 applications available from the iTunes store more than 100m times since it opened on July 8 this year. But iPhone applications are only available through the iTunes store, meaning that Apple controls what is available to users.

Applications for the Google G1 Phone can be downloaded from anywhere, although there is talk that Google, HTC and T-Mobile will set up some sort of applications repository, though weather Google will exercise the tight control that apple does on the iTunes store in some cases Apple has banned applications that compete with apple applications

The hope for Google is that ultimately Android will help more mobile phone customers get online through their mobile phone and use Google services on which Google can sell advertising.

Being the first to market will be a feather in the cap for HTC, the Taiwanese company known mainly as a maker of handsets that run on Microsoft’s Windows Mobile operating system.

LG and Samsung will unveil their first Google-powered mobile phones next year. Spyshots of the Gphone aka the HTC Dream via  Gizmodo and rizzn.com

Orange launched the Bold, by Research in Motion (RIM), earlier this month, ahead of T-Mobile, Carphone Warehouse and Vodafone. 3 said in April at the Hugh Symons Unity seminar it will also take the handset. O2 has confirmed they too will stock the handset before Christmas.

Orange has also taken delivery of early stock of the 16GB version of Samsung’s Omnia phone, its first Windows Mobile device, which comes with a 5 migapixel camera. Orange has a six-week exclusive on the 16GB version. Other retailers will range the 8GB version in the meantime.

The Blackberry Bold is already available ‘free’ on £40 deals from all Orange’s direct channels. It will be available from Carphone at the end of the month on Orange, on the same price plans. A £2.50 charge for unlimited data is also available. T-Mobile customers signing to the Business One plan can take the Bold from September, with free access to T-Mobile’s 1,000 Wi-Fi hotspots around the country. Vodafone said it will be selling the device in the coming weeks on 18 month deals, although tariff details were unavailable as Mobile News went to press.

The Blackberry Bold is HSDPA-enabled. It is the first RIM BlackBerry handset to allow customers to open, edit and send Microsoft Word and Excel documents.  An Orange spokesperson said: “Some people are calling it a genuine rival to the iPhone, so for us to be the first to launch the handset is great news.” T-Mobile head of business marketing Oliver Chivers said: “The BlackBerry Bold offers all the features our customers expect, as well as a range of advanced functionality that enhance its business benefits. “We are sure it will prove a popular choice with both SME and enterprise customers.”

The new Samsung i900 Omnia touch screen handset, uses Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, which includes Word, Excel and PowerPoint. The handset strikes many similarities to Apples iPhone not only in looks, but by being sold in two different versions 8GB and 16GB. However, unlike the iPhone, this device has expandable memory capabilities, and features a 5 megapixel camera, including a feature called face and smile detection. Other features include GPS, FM radio, Wi-Fi and HSDPA, and will be boxed with a spare stylus and leather carrying case.

Details on pricing have yet to be confirmed.

A spokesO2 said: “the Blackberry Bold is still undergoing product testing. We will only launch a device when we are confident it will deliver a great customer experience.” This is an odd response, seeing as they know full well we recently toyed with the O2 version of the phone for sometime at the Wireless Festival in London, with no problems whatsoever. What’s even odder than that is the press samples of the handset sent out by RIM for review carry a Vodafone SIM card.

Just in case you need a refresher as to what the Bold is all about, it’s the first Blackberry phone to support tri-band HSDPA networks, with integrated GPS, Wi-Fi and a new full-QWERTY keyboard. Here’s a picture of the phone on an Orange network, the very first image to be seen anywhere on the very first network to support it.

In Spain, where Vodafone saw revenues tumble 2.5pc - ending a sustained period of growth - Telefonica’s mobile arm managed to eke out growth of 0.2pc despite the tougher economic climate. O2 UK’s quarterly figures did not include sales of the iPhone 3G which went on sale in July 11 and has become the company’s fastest-selling phone ever. Mr Key admitted the company had experienced a shortage of the new device, leaving disappointing many customers. However, he said the company was hoping that within a month it would have enough stock to allow any customer to walk into any store a buy an iPhone off the shelf. He added that half of customers were buying the phone on a tariff of £45 or £75 a month, with iPhone customers still spending 30pc more on average per month than standard customers. Shares in Telefonica rose 21c to €16.66, while Vodafone edged 1.1 higher at 136.05p. Shares in Orange’s parent France Telecom rose 59c to €20.37 as it said it would pay an interim dividend for the first time ever. Orange added just 1,000 new UK customers in the three months to June 30 but saw revenues rise 9.7pc in the first half as it attracted higher spending contract customers. Tom Alexander, chief executive of Orange UK, said: “While we’re mindful of the economic climate in the UK, this is a damn good time to expand - that’s why we’re pushing harder on the high street with new retail stores, while simultaneously growing our mobile network. “We’re seeing that mobile is relatively resilient to economic change. Mobile is embedded in people’s lives and they’re spending more than they did last year on Orange.”

Among the polled workers, younger consumers, who currently use Apple computers and iPods, don’t mind paying the premium and are most likely to buy an iPhone. Though with business penetration of apple computers outside of some smaller media industry sectors (music and video production especially) lower this may not be true across the whole mobile worker population.

Furthermore, according to RDA Global, Apple will also find its customers among the Blackberry, Treo and other high-end phone users.

Finally, it’s interesting to add that potential iPhone purchasers spend almost twice the amount of time on their mobile device than is the case with those not interested in the iPhone.

More information as well as the full RDA iPhone Study is available on RDA Global’s site.

Hewlett-Packard once again pulled in more global revenue and shipments in Q1 than its closest rival IBM. HP racked up ten per cent more server revenue than the same period a year ago, reeling in $4bn for the three months ended 31 March, narrowly ahead of IBM’s $3.9bn – an increase of just two per cent on the first quarter of 2007.

IBM had been sitting pretty at the top of the server revenue pile for many years, but in recent quarters a robust HP has retained the all-important number one spot.

HP shifted 683,433 servers for the quarter, while Dell pushed out 516,499 boxes and IBM shipped 302,057 systems, according to the Gartner report.

Dell was third place on server revenue and brought in $1.6bn, up six per cent on last year’s quarter. The only major server vendor to lose revenue in Q1 was Sun Microsystems with a drop of less than one per cent on revenue of $1.3bn.

Total server revenue increased 4.3 per cent to $13.6bn in the first quarter compared to the same period last year, with shipments up 7.6 per cent. However, Gartner noted that overall growth hasn’t been as feisty as in recent years.

Despite that, the analyst firm said that companies have been ditching old kit in favour of new x86 models that are capable of supporting web-based apps.

The report also pinpointed emerging markets, such as India and China, where it said growth had “forged ahead” for the first three months of 2008.

Meanwhile, shipments of RISC and Itanium-based Unix servers dropped, but still that sector scored a slight increase in revenue. IBM led the charge for the quarter on revenue in that market, while Sun Microsystems shipped more units

This is not science fiction - it is the future of social networking and it is just around the corner. After the explosion in internet-based social networking (MySpace, Facebook) doing the same thing in real life instead of in front of a computer became an obvious next step. Much of it is already happening on a small scale as dozens of companies seek to exploit social networking on the go.

So how does it work? The key is the coming together of internet-connected mobile phones and location or proximity technology.

You can browse the internet quickly and easily on most new phones. Phones know where they are, thanks to in-built GPS satellite technology or triangulation from mobile phone masts. They can then tell if other phones are in the same area. Bluetooth short-range radio technology is also standard on most mobiles and with this phones can pick up the presence of other Bluetooth-enabled phones within about 20 metres.

Effectively, by linking these two developments, your phone can tell if someone is near you and can access lots of information about them - the perfect ingredients for real social interaction.

The possibilities are endless. Can’t ever put names to faces? Want to check the background of that chief executive officer so you can remind him that he owes you a favour? Want to avoid all accountants/lawyers/journalists? Keep seeing that handsome man at the bar and need a common interest to get the ball rolling? All these scenarios are being solved by the new wave of mobile applications.

One company based in Berlin has just gone live with its mobile social network. More than 3,000 young Germans have signed up to the aka-aki service in just over a month.

Users of the service download an application on to their mobile phones free. The software uses Bluetooth, and when another member’s phone comes within range, it pings. The user can then check who it is and choose to access that person’s profile, message them and, if they want, go over and have a chat.

In just over an hour on a sunny day in the centre of Berlin I had more than a dozen “encounters” with aka-aki members. Everyone was buzzing with the possibilities of the network and eager to chat.

Stefanie Hoffman, 30, one of aka-aki’s founders, said that although she met her boyfriend through aka-aki it was not just about dating. “The business applications are real,” she said. “I went to a conference the other day - one girl and 80 guys - and normally I would feel very reluctant to go up to someone to talk. It can be very difficult if you are a woman in those circumstances. But my phone told me there were half a dozen aka-aki members there and so I could introduce myself.”

That privileged sense of belonging is both the key to the success of mobile social networking and the greatest barrier. People will want to join because they can be part of a connected community. But until enough people join, these mobile networks will not take off. It is probably going to take one of the big beasts of internet social networks such as Facebook, which already has many millions of members, to achieve this.

The other big question mark is privacy. Why would people want total strangers to have access to their details?

In the Mitte district of Berlin, Sehnaz Sensan, 27, a student and aka-aki member, was unconcerned. After I had messaged her to ask if we could talk, she said that she “encountered” mainly men (the ratio for men and women signing up for aka-aki is about 70/30 - early adopters of new technology tend to be young men). “I can control what is on my profile and what people can know about me,” she said. “They message me to say hello and I can message back and we can meet up or I can ignore it. It is a way of breaking the ice.”

What about being bothered by strangers? “Men can come up to you anyway without knowing anything about you,” Ms Sensan said. “That’s much more insulting. If I don’t want an encounter then I don’t switch it on.”

Michael Arrington, one of the most influential technology bloggers in the world, says that the days when people are not happy to broadcast their CV/personal life electronically are over. “People always trade off privacy for removal of friction,” he said.

As he notes on his TechCrunch blog there are more than a dozen mobile social network start-ups in Silicon Valley. “A few years from now we will use our mobile devices to help us to remember details of people we know. It will help us to meet new people for dating, business and friendship. Using your phone to create or enhance real world interactions is a killer application, but no one has cracked the nut yet. Once it happens, look out.”

Arrington has blogged that Apple’s hugely successful iPhone would be a great place to start. He has seen an “awesome” application being developed and says that iPhone users are the perfect group for a mobile social network - they are technological, elitist and identify with their brand.

Analysts and commentators are predicting huge growth in the sector. Aka-aki, which was developed from a university diploma project, now has serious funding from a leading German venture capitalist.

It is not difficult to see how networks like aka-aki might make money. Anyone who has watched the film Minority Report with Tom Cruise will have seen how shops could message those on the network with offers when they pass by.

In another scenario, businesses such as restaurants could pay to access the service and when a member walks in, the store’s profile appears. The member chooses to add the restaurant to a list of favoured brands and the next week receives a two-for-one meal offer. The restaurant gets targeted “permission” advertising and more diners on a slow night.

But in the end are mobile social networks not just a nerdy replacement for people simply talking to each other? As one blogger put it: “I am pretty sure that an actual conversation will do the same thing. Is this the evolution of geek dating?”

Roman Hansler, another aka-aki co-founder, says that seeing other people’s details on your mobile in real life is a conversation-starter not a replacement. “This is about opening doors for real communication, not sitting in a virtual chat room,” he said.