T-Mobile to offer first Android smartphone

A prototype of the Google Android mobile by Qualcomm is on display at the Mobile World Congress (formerly 3GSM World Congress) in Barcelona, February 11, 2008.

(Reuters) - Deutsche Telekom's (DTEGn.DE) T-Mobile USA will be the first carrier to offer a mobile phone based on Google Inc's (GOOG.O) Android software, the New York Times reported, citing people briefed on the company's plans.

The high-end phone, which will be made by the world's top smartphone maker High Tech Computer Corp (2498.TW), is expected to challenge Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) iPhone as well as other smartphones that run software from Palm Inc PALM.O, Research in Motion (RIM.TO) (RIMM.O), Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) and Nokia Oyj (NOK1V.HE).

The phone is expected to go on sale in the U.S. before Christmas and perhaps as early as October, the paper said.

Neither Google, nor T-Mobile immediately returned calls seeking comment.

Last November, Google introduced its highly anticipated Android software system for designing mobile phone devices, in a move it promised could help the cellphone industry make the Internet work as smoothly on phones as it does on computers.

(Reporting by Tenzin Pema in Bangalore; Editing by Paul Bolding)