Hands on with the T-Mobile G1. Bloomberg Boot Camp, a report on today's technology. While it may not have quite the gee-whiz factor of Apple's iPhone....what the new handset using Google's Android operating system does do....is usher in a new world of open-ness for smartphones. Google has opened the door for developers to come up with applications for Android...without the kinds of restrictions that Apple has imposed. It also allows the operating system itself to be tinkered with and used by anyone who want to. HTC....which until now had turned out only Windows Mobile devices....was the first manufacturer out of the gate. And VP Jason MacKenzie says...

"We see this basically as expanding the market and really expanding our portfolio. One of the things HTC is all about is choice and depth of our portfolio. We've been doing a great job of that from a hardware perspective over the last ten years, giving customers choice. This just allows us to expand that even further and touch customers that we hadn't in the past."

As for the phone itself....it features both a touch screen....and a slide out full keyboard. It also uses a surprisingly handy trackball for navigation. It can connect to WiFi networks...and to T-Mobile's new high speed data network as well. One drawback is that network is not nearly as fully deployed as the 3G networks of competitors like AT&T, Verizon and Sprint. The price, with a contract, is 179 dollars. Bloomberg Boot Camp, I'm Fred Fishkin.