T-Mobile sells a million G1s in the US

We don't know why T-Mobile isn't trumpeting this, but Deutsche Telekom's Q1 results are out, and the multinational carrier says that over one million G1s have been sold in the US, making up a majority of the 1.5 million 3G devices currently active on T-Mo's network. That's quite an accomplishment in just six months, considering the Android handset launched without nationwide 3G coverage -- it's better now, but we're talking just 21 cities back in October. Of course, a million's just a drop in the bucked compared to the number of Blackberrys, iPhones, and Windows Mobile devices out there, but we've got enough of a soft spot for Android to overlook it -- now let's get some more devices out the door and really boost that marketshare number, shall we?

[Via Electronista]

[Ellianth @ Apr 23rd 2009 12:52PM]

Nice picture engadget. This thing kinda looks pretty from that angle.

[Silverfrog @ Apr 23rd 2009 2:51PM]

I completely disagree. The photograph was taken from a great angle. Problem is, the aperture was too large and creates too much of the bokeh effect, which obscures the rest of the phone. Normally, a depth of field such as this is used to create an emotional effect or to blur out unwanted objects from a photo, but in this case it was to the photo's detriment.

[wako @ Apr 23rd 2009 3:12PM]

@Silverfrog


omg... seriously?

[weems @ Apr 23rd 2009 3:18PM]

@wako

ignore him, he uncontrollably masterbates while typing on engadget, his thoughts are very scrambled.

[Glavasich @ Apr 23rd 2009 3:24PM]

I think it looks pretty nasty.

[Silverfrog @ Apr 23rd 2009 6:01PM]

All Engadget photographs look the same. Please tell me you understand that much.

[Information Central @ Apr 24th 2009 5:22AM]

It nicely accentuates the stupid "chin".

[Platinum_Skeet @ Apr 23rd 2009 12:54PM]

It took a little longer than expected. I thought they had already hit a million months ago...

[Dan Davis @ Apr 23rd 2009 12:55PM]

We have two in our household.

I can't wait for more Android handsets to be released, as the Market is now stagnant with AHome themes and tip calculators.

[chefgon_ign @ Apr 23rd 2009 1:53PM]

We have two in our house, too. I upgraded from a Dash right when it came out, and then my wife traded up from her Sidekick 2008 last month. I absolutely love mine, unfortunately I haven't had as much free time as I'd like lately and I haven't been able to get as proficient at the SDK as I thought I would by now.

I have the same frustrations about the Market, it never seems like anything is on there, but in my experience it has more to do with the god-awful Market App than it does with the actual content available. There are TONS of fantastic apps available on there, and they're not all iPhone ports either. The problem is that it's just damn near impossible to find them with the search tool that Google provides. I'm always hearing about some random app that has been on the Market for a long time that's totally awesome but I had never seen it before.

Who would have thought that Google's downfall on this one would be an inability to match their competitor's search capabilities? I certainly didn't see it coming.

[jake @ Apr 23rd 2009 3:22PM]

@chefgon_ign
That's my big criticism for Android also. I don't know why they insist on only having market access on the phone, very hard to look for stuff on such a small screen. It would be so much better if they have an online market where you can at least browse apps, like you can do on iTunes.

But I still like Android (the relatively ease of getting an app on your phone is what I like most about it) out of all the competing OSes, just waiting for more phones to come out (on AT&T so hoping for a triband or quadband 3G device).

[vitriolix @ Apr 23rd 2009 4:20PM]

Agreed on the lameness of the market. I usually find the best new apps from word of mouth from my friends. For a web view of the market, check out:

http://www.cyrket.com/

Very slick.

[i208khonsu @ Apr 24th 2009 1:57AM]

I got my Android on release and would browse the market daily. There would be new and useful things cropping up all the time. After paid apps hit it all went downhill with aHome themes, and comic books. I try to browse though all the new stuff once a week, but haven't found anything useful in a long time. The only new stuff worthwhile are root access apps on xda-developers.com.

Not really complaining too much, my memory is already loaded full with great apps from those glory days, but a new Android user won't know what to download w/o some guidance.

[Philipp @ Apr 23rd 2009 12:56PM]

...but Deutche Telekom's Q1 results..., you forgot an "s", it's name is "Deutsche Telekom".
Btw, nice to hear that.

[kjb434 @ Apr 23rd 2009 12:56PM]

1 million is not bad for the first iteration of this OS that pretty much was only trumpeted by the more tech savy crowd.

Blackberry has its long standing business and government base.

WinMo has its ease of integration with the mother OS.

iPhone has the built in iPod and apple fan base.

G1 started with really nothing.

[Eric Schneider @ Apr 23rd 2009 1:04PM]

The communities of Google application users and open source fanatics are hardly small.

[kjb434 @ Apr 23rd 2009 1:08PM]

But lots of google application users can get the applications for other mobile phones than the G1. Google apps are available for WinMo, iPhone, Blackberry...

[Mark @ Apr 23rd 2009 1:09PM]

and the open source crowd is relatively small, compared to that of windows or mac users.

[Eric Schneider @ Apr 23rd 2009 1:15PM]

I'm not talking about exclusivity. I'm talking about exposure.

[UnixSystemsEngineer @ Apr 23rd 2009 1:32PM]

Yeah, you're absolutely right. There are lots of people who are fans of Android who just don't want to buy this particular HTC phone. Either they're waiting for something else from HTC, or something from another manufacturer, or...

It's actually quite impressive that the Android "launch device" has sold so many, when it's really just the first step.

[Roman @ Apr 23rd 2009 1:00PM]

It's really taking a while for Android phones to come to Canada, I've been putting off upgrading my dumb phone for many months now. Whats taking so long?

[Wicker24 @ Apr 23rd 2009 1:20PM]

Did you ever play that game as a kid where you try to hold your breath while crossing a long bridge?

[Jorvay @ Apr 23rd 2009 1:24PM]

Considering Rogers locked out half the standard features on my sony phone, it probably has a lot to do with the potential difficulties they'd have in maintaining nazi-like control over an open-source-based phone. The same can likely be said for Bell or Telus.

[Kyle H @ Apr 23rd 2009 1:28PM]

The phrase getting Rogered comes to mind.

[narius @ Apr 23rd 2009 11:42PM]

I didn't bother waiting. I've got mine on Rogers. Works great, other than the fact that it has no 3G (which I'd turn off anyway). Also the timestamps on txt messages are a few hours behind.

But I'm perfectly happy with mine so far. Had it since January.

[Mark @ Apr 23rd 2009 1:05PM]

Awesome. I've been seeing em everywhere lately. Kinda makes sense since it kinda looks like a sidekick but costs less and is 10 bajillion times better

[dfi @ Apr 23rd 2009 1:08PM]

The combination of the htc magic coming out and cupcake 1.5 release is going really increase imo

the htc magic will appeal to the crowd that want a thinner more stylish phone.

And all the new features from cupcake (bt stereo, virtual keyboard, improved performance, UI tweaks) will appeal to the techie crowd.

[Foebea @ Apr 23rd 2009 2:08PM]

Heck yeah, I've been using the HTC 1.5 early compile for a while now. The performace, reliability, and battery life fixes make the old rc33 seem prehistoric. Android is going to explode when this hits the population. Generally the biggest complaints so far are of speed and reliability, and these get fixed. Word of mouth should do well I think. Not to mention the video recording with direct to youtube uploads. Nice.

[TheSuburbanWhiteBoy @ Apr 23rd 2009 1:15PM]

will there ever be a 850/1900/2100 3G banded Android phone?

[Reymund Pacio @ Apr 23rd 2009 1:20PM]

I still think the G1 sucks....I can speak from experience. Upgraded from G1 to my iPhone. I love you iPhone...will you marry me? Hahaha....bye ; )

[Mycroft @ Apr 23rd 2009 1:39PM]

I think you should marry your iPhone. It is clearly the only piece you will ever get.

[iphonerulez @ Apr 23rd 2009 1:23PM]

Oh, my goodness! That is a unexpectedly huge number of Android handsets being sold. Android is just about ready to take over the whole smartphone market. And to think, they only took SIX months to achieve this record number. This Android OS is becoming one of the most popular platforms, ever. Look out RIM and Apple, Android is racing up right behind you. There must be hundreds of developers just dying to get their games on this huge, huge user base. And to think, many people believed that T-Mobile wouldn't be able to sell more than 500,000 units but this doubled everyone's expectations. All power to the G1. Smartphone history is about to be rewritten. I can't wait to see the G2.

[Waffle Slayer @ Apr 23rd 2009 1:46PM]

Says the guy with the Baby Shaker app on his precious.

[reuthermonkey1 @ Apr 23rd 2009 2:38PM]

considering TMO did this with hardly any advertising, i'd say it's not too bad. Unlike ATT and Apple which are advertising CONSTANTLY during primetime to reach their numbers. Makes (a rational person) wonder what the G1 could have done with even 1/10th the advertising of the AppleATT duo.

[MG76 @ Apr 23rd 2009 1:28PM]

I like the whole concept of android on a phone, but Ive never even seen one of these in person in my area. Possibly its because TMobile coverage is so bad here.

[kjb434 @ Apr 23rd 2009 1:56PM]

I still used my heavily modified ATT tilt, but all the G1 I've seen in the wild have been quite nice. They seem really responsive the users like them a lot. And not all of them were the typical tech savy user.

[Cyclone @ Apr 23rd 2009 1:30PM]

Count me in as one of the first million. I picked one up in March and I'm really liking it. I wish it had a free Texas Hold em app. As a phone the sound quality is much better than the blackberry that used to use. I also like that I can add ringtone by simply copying them from my PC to the G1. None of that "Steve Jobs has a hold on you" crap that requires iTunes.

Oh, and if I want more space, I just upgrade the microSD.

Love the G1. About 4 others here had work have added it recently. It is growing.

[Mark @ Apr 23rd 2009 1:37PM]

just from a quick glance at the market there's "Hold'em Online Lite" and "Online Hold'em- Red Poker Club"

[Zane @ Apr 23rd 2009 1:37PM]

Thats how much the nokia 5800 sells in a month...not as great a device in many ways, and global market etc but just throwing it out there

[Suomaa @ Apr 23rd 2009 1:59PM]

Good point! 5800 has sold over 3 million units by now.

[sweet greggo @ Apr 23rd 2009 2:01PM]

In the US? Because the article says in the US.

[reuthermonkey1 @ Apr 23rd 2009 2:40PM]

good point. Comparing sales of a phone on the smallest national carrier in a single market to a phone sold around the world on countless carriers... Yeah, great point.

[Clyde Berry @ Apr 23rd 2009 1:40PM]

I love the hell out of my G1. The internal memory is crap but, otherwise, a damn fine phone.

Can't wait for the battle this summer: Android vs. Pre vs. iPhone 3.0 in a battle royale death match. FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT!

[Guru @ Apr 23rd 2009 1:41PM]

Zero to million in 6 months ,?
What does this say about android, it has zero desirability .

[chefgon_ign @ Apr 23rd 2009 1:45PM]

1,000,000 = 0?

[CJ @ Apr 23rd 2009 5:12PM]

It's Shugg, move on.

[HOOPER @ Apr 23rd 2009 10:03PM]

$ 0.01 = 0.01 ¢

[Cellulararrest @ Apr 23rd 2009 1:42PM]

I can't wait for a CDMA phone to come out (if ever). I'm in love with android, but am not really willing to give up CDMA at the moment.

[el Capitan @ Apr 23rd 2009 2:03PM]

Why CDMA then?

All the handset action is on the GSM side. With close to simultaneous Europe launches of the Storm and Pre, I can't think of a single interesting phone launch on CDMA prior to GSM.

Correct me if wrong.

[Valicore @ Apr 23rd 2009 4:09PM]

There is a dual-mode CDMA/GSM Android touchscreen phone coming out on Sprint later this year according to HTC's roadmap - I can't wait, it looks pretty good too.