T-Mobile will launch the first phone powered by Google’s Android software, in hopes that the new device will compete with Apple's iPhone. The high-end phone is expected to go on sale in as early as October.

The smartphone will be manufactured by Taiwan-based High Tech Computer, and will have a large touch screen that slides out to reveal a five-row QWERTY keyboard. The device, which will be called the G1, will sell for $150 to T-Mobile customers in the first week of launch before it is offered to other customers at a higher price.

Google developed the Android design to help it expand its successful advertising business into the increasingly lucrative mobile market. It released the parameters to an alliance of mobile phone carriers, developers and manufacturers earlier in the year.

Deutsche Telecom's T-Mobile announced in February that it would introduce Android-based phones in the fourth quarter of 2008.