The Google G1 phone was launched earlier this week with release dates for the UK expected sometime in November. Considering the domination of the web Google already has their foray into the mobile phone market has to be taken seriously and with the G1 phone seen as a main rival to Apple’s iPhone it’s more than possible that Google will become a big player in the mobile phone market.

So can the G1 phone be a serious rival to the Apple iphone? Well it may not be quite as stylish or look as pleasing to the eye as the iphone but it does have a lot going for it. Based on the company’s new Android operating system the G1 phone definitely offers the user a chance to recreate the desktop computing experience on a mobile device for the first time.

The phone comes with all the usual devices you expect in a phone these days. There’s a three-megapixel camera, music player, Wi-Fi and 3g internet browsing, GPS, a touch screen, oh…and it can make phone calls too! Feature wise G1 phone has more than a little in common with the iphone and Blackberry. The QWERTY keyboard with track ball is more than similar to the one found on a Blackberry, while the touch screen web browser and intuitive email set up have lot in common with the iphone.

One main difference between the iPhone and the Google phone is the operating system. The new Google Android system is open source, so software developers can create any sort of imaginative application for the phone which can be downloaded and used. For instance already there is a barcode reader that has been developed by one programmer which allows the G1 phone user to take a picture of the barcode of an item like a Hi-Fi using the phone’s camera and the G1 will instantly go to a price comparison site to see if the item is available somewhere else at a cheaper price.

It’s thought that in the coming months thousands of new gadgets and applications will be available for the phone and it’s this potential for innovation that makes the G1 a serious rival indeed to the iPhone, especially when you consider that anything you want to download to your iPhone is controlled solely by its maker Apple.

The iPhone does beat the G1 when it comes to the music player quality, but that downside for potential buyers may be offset by the fact you can download music from any site to the G1 phone unlike the IPhone.

With the iPhone already having a solid foothold in the market it will be interesting to see how the initial sales of the new Google phone will go. There’s nowhere near the same sort of buzz about the launch of the G1 as there was about the iPhone. The iPhone was seen as a must have new piece of kit and it’s unlikely that there will be too many people camping out for days to get their hands on the Google phone which is seen by some to be no more than an ugly imitation of the iphone.

We wouldn’t quite write off the Google phone yet however as the potential does seem to be there and although it may not appeal to the style guru’s it could be seen by many others to be an alternative to the iPhone. Whether that will be enough to see of the iPhone and become the market leader is debatable.

The G1 Phone will be available in the UK from November through T-Mobile. According TO t-Mobile the phone is free but you will have to take out a contract with T-Mobile, which will cost £40 per month. Hopefully a pay as you go alternative will be available shortly.

We’ve no doubt that a large number of G1 Phones will find their way into people’s Christmas stockings this year, but whether that initial surge of sales can be maintained will be the big question.