NEW DELHI: Taiwanese cellphone maker HTC is all set to launch G2, or the second generation premier Google phone that runs on Google’s Android op
erating system, in India soon. It is likely to be priced between Rs 26,000 to 28,000.

The company is planning to sell the unlocked G2 Android phone through a large telecom service provider, most likely Airtel, according to sources.

However, it has no immediate plans to retail the same through Vodafone with which it has a tie-up to sell G1 and G2 in most other regions, including the entire Europe.

The phone is likely to be bundled by the telco with talk time, data plans, microSD card for storage and other offers which will make it a compelling buy for the consumer. But it being unlocked means that users on other networks too will be able to lay their hands upon the handset.

Android is based on the open source platform for mobile devices. Using these smart phones, a user can download a wide number of utilities and productivity applications from Android App Store, both priced and for free. For those who swear by Google’s apps, the phone is a good buy.

HTC partnered with T-Mobile and Google in the US to launch T-Mobile G1 in September 2008, followed by G2 recently. G1 never made it to the Indian market although T-Mobile claimed to have sold over a million pieces in the US. The phone, however, has been available in the grey market for around Rs 18-19,000.

The phone is being launched in India by HTC at a time when there are already a number of other smart touchphones vying for attention, including Blackberry Bold and Nokia N97 and its own Touch Diamond 2.

Branded as myTouch by T-Mobile in the US, G2 has the same hardware design as the Google Ion, which is also known as the HTC Magic. The device was introduced at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February and is now being sold by Vodafone in various markets around the world.

It is thinner than the G1 and slightly smaller than Apple’s iPhone. But it features a large 3.2-inch tactile touch screen with a resolution of 320 x480 pixels and no physical keyboard. The phone offers network support for 3G and Wi-Fi.

It also comes with 512 MB internal memory and has a microSD slot for external storage.