Google's rival to Apple iPhone hits the market

Vodafone will be the first carrier to subsidise Google's new phone, the Nexus One, for UK users in the spring, but impatient consumers can get the product shipped direct from the internet giant, it was announced last night.

On a day of hoopla at Google's headquarters in California, executives at the company called the Nexus One the first "superphone", a device able to surf the web at high speeds and with many voice-activated features. They have set the price for an unlocked phone, able to run on any network, at $529 (£330), and said it was already available from its website to buyers from the US, the UK, Singapore and Hong Kong.

"You will see it pushes the limits of what is possible on a mobile phone today," said Peter Chou, chief executive of HTC, which is manufacturing the phone for Google.

Noise-cancellation technology, a 3.7in touch-screen and a 5-megapixel camera with flash set the Nexus One apart from Apple's iPhone, but Google executives concede that much depends on whether application developers create new applications (apps) for the phone in greater numbers. More than 3 billion apps have been downloaded for the iPhone from an Apple app store offering more than 100,000 programmes which can turn the phone into a gaming device, information source or even a musical instrument. Only 20,000 apps are compatible with Google's mobile-operating software Android.

In the US, T-Mobile is the first carrier offering to reduce the cost of the Nexus One to $179 for customers who sign up to a two-year service contract. It will also be available at low cost from Verizon Wireless, which is part-owned by Vodafone, by the spring. Vodafone will also make it available in Europe.

The aim of yesterday's launch, and of the hype surrounding it, is to increase the number of consumers whose phone runs on Android, and to cut the market share of the iPhone and the BlackBerry. Google got involved in designing and marketing hardware for the first time because it was frustrated by the slow pace of development of high-end Android phones.

The company is trying to protect its dominance of the internet advertising market, as more people become able to surf the web from mobile devices.