T-Mobile Promises HSPA+ Speeds WIth Upcoming G2 Phone
"The T-Mobile G2 will deliver tight integration with Google services and break new ground as the first smartphone designed to run 4G speeds on our new HSPA+ network," reads promotional copy on T-Mobile's G2 page, which invites users to provide contact information for updates. "In the coming weeks, we'll share more details about the G2 and offer exclusive first access to current T-Mobile customers."
More details on the G2 aren't yet known. In July, a leaked product roadmap apparently showing upcoming device launches on T-Mobile suggested that a phone called the HTC Vanguard would drop on Sept. 9.
T-Mobile in June said it had upgraded its current 3G network to HSPA+ in 25 U.S. metropolitan areas, covering 75 million potential users. HSPA+, sometimes called "evolved HSPA (high speed packet access)" is not a 4G standard, but at advertised throughput of about 21 Mbps, offers what T-Mobile is touting as 4G speeds.
On its site, T-Mobile describes G2 as the successor to G1, which in September 2008 became the first commercially available Android smartphone in the U.S.
Since then, Android has exploded, and is now the operating system of choice for no small number of devices -- smartphones and tablets alike -- and a prime challenger to Apple, Research In Motion and the native OSes on their phones. The evolution of Android is also continuing; version 2.2, known as Froyo, is being pushed out to some of the year's hottest smartphones, and version 3.0, code-named Gingerbread, is in the works.