New iPhone Contender Touches Down

We've seen this movie before: Apple launches a new computer or handheld device with user-friendly software, pitched through a hip marketing campaign and wrapped in sexy, come-hither clothing; then competitors try to recreate Apple's alchemy only to fail miserably. Somehow an Apple by any other name just doesn't taste as sweet, but perhaps we are comparing apples to ... never mind, you get the point.

Enter T-Mobile's new myTouch 3G, manufactured by HTC and powered by Google's Android operating system. Like the iPhone, and unlike its predecessor the G1, the new Android-based smart phone is completely touchscreen-operated and even lacks a slide-out keyboard. That's a big gamble, considering the lukewarm reception of BlackBerry's key-free touchscreen offering.

The iPhone's main weakness is Apple's death grip on the look and feel of the phone, which T-Mobile hopes to exploit through personalization options. The write-up of the new phone on T-Mobile's website (with the words "you" or "your" appearing no less than eight times in the following blurb) almost sounds like a passive-aggressive calling-out of the folks at 1 Infinite Loop:

Everything about myTouch 3G puts you first. An application that knows you better the more you use it. Themes and skins let you show off your style. You can even customize menus, wallpapers and icons to create an experience that is truly your own. It’s all about choice. Your choice [T-Mobile's emphasis, not ours].

With Apple, of course, it's their way or the highway. But their way is awfully intriguing. Still, there's nothing like a little competition to keep Apple on their feet and prices down to earth. T-Mobile will begin shipping the new phone later this summer.