Google will foray in the mobile phone handset market with the launch of its handset device that runs its Android operating system, the company announced yesterday.

The new phone called the G1 is made by Taiwanese firm HTC in association with Google's first network partner T-Mobile. With the launch, Google will directly compete with  Apple's iPhone and Nokia.

The new G-phone has a touchscreen like the iPhone but includes a slide-out Qwerty keypad. It will feature a Linux-based mobile operating system, which can run fairly complicated mobile applicationss on relatively low-powered phones.

The phone is expected to go on sale in the US next month and the company expects to introduce it in the UK by December. It will be priced about $199.

The arrival of the G1 is the latest salvo in a fight to control the software that will power the next generation of mobile phones, which can access the internet. More devices from other manufacturers will follow next year.

Interestingly, the Android has been made as a "open platform" device, which means users are charged to use it either in a device or as a basis for writing applications.

As a result, anyone can write programmes that will run on an Android phone - from maps and calendars to word-processing software and games.

The phone also referred as the HTC Dream, previously and the "Kila", the project name given by T-Mobile and a reference to the network's hope that it will prove an effective competitor against the iPhone.