Sleeker than the somewhat boxy G1, the myTouch boasts longer battery life–up to six hours of talk time, one more than its predecessor–a 3.2-megapixel camera, a virtual keyboard that orients automatically from portrait to landscape mode and, more importantly, better customization.

Now that the Android Market has 5,000-strong range of applications, devices like the myTouch offer a more compelling proposition than even before. “No two myTouch devices will be alike,” Andrew Sherrard, vice president at T-Mobile, told News.com. “They will be as unique as the users that own them. What we have found is that once consumers know how to customize a device and they add everything they want on it, they respond very well to having a phone that is specially designed for them.”

Yep, they sure do.

“Customers are voting and the iPhone is winning,” Apple CEO Steve Jobs said a press release today. “With over 50,000 applications available from Apple’s revolutionary App Store, iPhone momentum is stronger than ever.”

An impressive showing. Particularly considering all the factors that could slow sales: The souring economy, competition from the Palm (PALM) Pre, the BlackBerry Storm, the T-Mobile G1 and, of course, the iPhone itself. After all, there is now a $99 iPhone on the market. Beyond this, there’s the fact that the 3GS was launched in eight countries. The 3G debuted in 21.

Interestingly, this is the first time we’ve seen Jobs quoted in an Apple release in some time now. As best I can tell, the last quote attributed to him was in a Jan. 21, 2009, earnings release. Since then, Apple (AAPL) has issued 22 more press releases. This is the first in which it is Jobs, and not COO Tim Cook or Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, who is quoted. Does this mean he’s officially back at work following his medical leave? I’ve put that question to Apple and will update if I hear back.

[Image credit: Gizmodo]

Called the T-Mobile myTouch 3G, the device is similar in design to the HTC Magic, an Android device currently sold by Vodafone UK (VOD). Like Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone, it features a touchscreen but no physical keyboard. And it’s said to integrate voice-activated search, video recording and enhanced browsing, thanks to Cupcake, otherwise known as Android 1.5.

When it goes on sale, the myTouch 3G will be the second Android-based phone to hit the market from a major carrier in the states, but by the end of the year it will be one of many. Google (GOOG) expects some 18 Android devices to arrive at market this year.

Wrong. According to market researcher NPD, the best-selling smartphone was Research in Motion’s (RIMM) BlackBerry Curve, which slipped past the iconic device in market share, bolstered by Verizon’s (VZ) Buy One, Get One promotion.

That deal, which ran from Feb. 6 to March 31, offered a second RIM handset of equal or lesser value with the purchase of any Blackberry and a two-year contract–an attractive proposition and one that many a consumer took the carrier up on. NPD says RIM’s consumer smartphone market share rose to nearly 50 percent in the first quarter, an increase of 15 percent. Meanwhile, Apple’s (AAPL) and Palm’s (PALM) shares both declined 10 percent. “Buy one, get one free” trumps “what are the handy things about the iPhone” every time.

NPD’s Top 5 rankings:

1. RIM BlackBerry Curve (all 83XX models)
2. Apple iPhone 3G (all models)
3. RIM BlackBerry Storm
4. RIM BlackBerry Pearl (all models, except flip)
5. T-Mobile G1

“Verizon Wireless’s aggressive marketing of the BlackBerry Storm and its buy-one-get-one BlackBerry promotion to its large customer base contributed to RIM capturing three of the top five positions,” Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis at The NPD Group said in a statement. “The more familiar, and less expensive Curve benefited from these giveaways and was able to leapfrog the iPhone, due to its broader availability on the four major U.S. national carriers.”

It’s not likely we’ll ever see a similar “buy one, get one” free deal from Apple for the iPhone, although if we did, one wonders how long the BlackBerry would be able to hold on to the top spot.

The estimated bill of materials for the G1: $144. The estimated bill of material for Apple’s 8GB iPhone 3G: $160.

Now, iSuppli’s estimated bill of materials for the G1 is based on component and materials costs alone. It doesn’t account for other expenses like research and development, software, shipping and distribution. It does, however, account for “wow factor,” of which the G1 apparently has a paucity. Though Tina Teng, iSuppli senior analyst of wireless communications, described the G1’s interface as better than average, she said it “still has a gap to close with Apple’s interface” and “lacks the wow factor of some of its slicker competitors.”

Of course, there’s a danger in that: code forking. With so many developers working on Android’s code–all with unique views of what it is and what it should do–there’s a possibility that the platform could fragment into multiple versions spread across innumerable vertical devices. A confusing prospect for consumers. Google aims to combat this with a nonfragmentation agreement that asks developers not to “modify [the Android code] in noncompatible ways.” While that should prevent some developers from forking Android’s code, it surely won’t prevent all of them.

[Image Credit: Rich Dellinger]

• Meanwhile … YouTube, through a new deal with CBS (CBS), added “MacGyver” and “Star Trek” re-runs to site classics like “Cat Falls in Toilet” and “Laughing Baby.”
• EBay (EBAY) updated it’s guidance to better reflect “current business trends,” i.e., lousy ones.
• With rumors of December layoffs in the wind, shares of Yahoo (YHOO) slipped into the mud, but recovered slightly thanks to some off-the-cuff remarks by Microsoft (MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer.
• Walt reviewed T-Mobile’s (DT) G1, the first cellphone based on Google’s Android OS, and concluded it’s a good first effort, but has some downsides.
• And, finally, Google (GOOG) reported third-quarter earnings that beat expectations, proving it’s doing relatively well in the current economic downturn. So far.

iPhone is launching in one carrier in one country. We’re in about 100 countries and 300 carriers. … The momentum we are seeing in terms of product launches, carrier support in terms of product launches of BlackBerries, and subscriber additions is exceptional, and we believe it will continue on into the second half of the year.”

– Research in Motion Co-Chief Executive Officer Jim Balsillie, June 2007

Looks like somebody’s got a case of the Mondays–Research in Motion. Shares in the company slipped more than 6 percent to a new 52-week low today. This after charting a new 52-week low last Friday driven by the 27 percent drop RIM took after it issued a lower-than-expected forecast for the current period. That decline was the company’s steepest in eight years, belying CEO Jim Balsillie’s claims that emerging competition from new handset makers isn’t undermining its competitive position. And though RIM’s product roadmap is relatively strong heading into the fall season, the company still has its work cut out for it scrapping with Apple (AAPL) and its iPhone and now T-Mobile (DT) and the Android-based G1.

“RIM’s business model is starting to show its pressure points. The company has become increasingly dependent on hardware sales. As a result, the timing of new product launches can have a big impact on their results,” wrote Brian Modoff of Deutsche Bank in a report. “We think this trend will only worsen and their numbers are now, more than ever, dependent on a steady stream of hit products.”

Needham and Company analyst Craig Bisagna was even more dubious of prospects for Research in Motion (RIMM), criticizing the company for its foolishly dismissive attitude toward new rivals. Just because Windows Mobile handsets haven’t proven themselves worthy competitors to the Blackberry doesn’t mean the iPhone or the G1 won’t.

“We continue to believe that the company has its head in the sand,” Bisagna said in a note to clients. “It’s delusional to think [Apple and HTC] won’t cut into BlackBerry sales as well, especially in the consumer market.”

“Our goal, when the T-Mobile G1 becomes available in October, is to provide affordable, high-speed data service allowing customers to experience the full data capabilities of the device and our 3G network,” T-Mobile (DT) explained. “At the same time, we have a responsibility to provide the best network experience for all of our customers so we reserve the right to temporarily reduce data throughput for a small fraction of our customers who have excessive or disproportionate usage that interferes with our network performance or our ability to provide quality service to all of our customers.”

Wait. “We reserve the right to temporarily reduce data throughput.” So T-Mobile’s removed the 1GB “soft cap” from its policy statement, but is still planning other restrictions to manage its network. Consider the two policy statement excerpts below:

If your total data usage in any billing cycle is more than 1GB, your data throughput for the remainder of that cycle may be reduced to 50 kbps or less. Your data session, plan, or service may be suspended, terminated, or restricted for significant roaming or if you use your service in a way that interferes with our network or ability to provide quality service to other users.”

– T-Mobile, “Important Notes About 3G and the T-Mobile G1,” Sept. 23, 2008

To provide the best network experience for all of our customers we may temporarily reduce data throughput for a small fraction of customers who use a disproportionate amount of bandwidth. Your data session, plan, or service may be suspended, terminated, or restricted for significant roaming or if you use your service in a way that interferes with our network or ability to provide quality service to other users.”

– T-Mobile, “Important Notes About 3G and the T-Mobile G1,” Sept. 25, 2008

These two policy excerpts aren’t all that different are they? “1GB” has been changed to “disproportionate amount of bandwidth.” And the reference to a reduction of data throughput to “50 kbps or less” has been rewritten as a general reduction in data throughput. No, they’re not different at all, really. In fact, with no hard number attached to it, “disproportionate amount of bandwidth” could still mean a 1GB cap, couldn’t it? Clearly, that’s how T-Mobile viewed 1GB of data usage in the first place, right? So what’s changed?

In design, the device seems to borrow quite a bit from T-Mobile’s Sidekick, and its touchscreen GUI owes a thing or two to Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone. Which makes perfect sense, since that’s the device it’s clearly intended to compete with. The G1 will run on both 3G and Wi-Fi and be tethered to the T-Mobile (DT) network. It will come preloaded with a version of Amazon’s MP3 store and Android Market, an application store similar to Apple’s App Store. And it will support and sync with the broad spectrum of Google (GOOG) apps–Google Talk, Google Calendar, etc. Its browser is something the dev team refers to as Chrome-Lite, a mobile version of Google’s new Webkit-based Chrome browser.

Oddly, the G1 has no built-in video player. Odder still, it has just 1GB of memory. T-Mobile has helpfully outfitted it with a 1GB/month bandwidth cap, though.

The G1 supports PDFs and Microsoft Office documents as well. Email will be handled through Gmail; there is no Exchange support, though presumably, engineers developing for Android Market will fill that void in short order.

Oh, the device offers copy-and-paste functionality. Hear that Apple?

It will arrive at market Oct. 22. Price: a highly-subsidized $179.