INBOX:LAST WEEK T-Mobile unveiled to the world a brand new smartphone that will be exclusive to the network. The difference was that this was the first mobile phone ever created by a website, and that site was Google.

The G1 was designed and conceived by the people that brought you one of the most powerful internet creations known to mankind.

First of all, some background. There is a clever reason why Google has gone to the enormous trouble to create a handset, and it is all related to its business model. You see, those harmless search queries we type into Google have turned it into an amazingly profitable business. By selling key words associated with these search terms in a complex advertising bidding system, Google has become an unstoppable force online.

But Google wants more. Much more. Now it wants our time and our search queries when we are out and about, away from the computer. Until now it offered free applications for mobiles, but most people just don't bother. What Google needed was to have some kind of control over the actual mobile itself. To do this, it had to create its own mobile operating system, Android. So step forward the G1, and the beginning of a new race for the mobile crown.

The T- Mobile G1 will go on sale in the US on October 22nd, hitting the UK in the beginning of November. The rest of Europe will have to wait until early next year, and though a launch in Ireland has not yet been specifically mentioned, the G1 is likely to arrive in good time.

So what is the handset like? Well, I can tell you one thing straight off: it's big. This is a smartphone that would not have looked out of the ordinary four years ago. But today, even smartphones have gone on diets. But not the G1.

With a full, slide-out Qwerty keyboard - something the iPhone lacks - the G1 was bound to be a little bulkier, though its 158g feels sturdy in the hand. But that doesn't hold it back, with the interface itself reminiscent of elements of both the iPhone and, shock horror, Windows Mobile.

You can move application icons around the screen with a finger, with a buzzy, haptic feedback acknowledging your actions. A collapsible sub-menu provides access to the gamut of applications like Google Maps, Messaging and games. The G1 will have access to an applications store, in a move which may or may not have been lifted directly from the iPhone App Store.

The G1's manufacturer - HTC - typically makes high-end Windows Mobile smartphones, and its experience shows with the G1's high-speed HSDPA 3G capability married to Google's home-brew mobile browser. The latter lets you open multiple pages in a thumbnail fashion. The effect is sometimes hit or miss. And although the G1 sports a 3.2- megapixel snapper, the camera has no zoom or video capability.

The G1 looks like being a good first effort for a company that never made phones before. But it's no iPhone killer. Just yet.