IPhone’s got competition. Surfacing earlier in the year with photos leaked on the internet, this phone was originally dubbed as the HTC Dream. Now, the official name is the T-Mobile G1 available for purchase on October 22nd in the U.S. The phone will hit the UK market in November and then the rest of Europe in the first quarter of 2009.

The G1 was unveiled yesterday as the first phone to use the Google Android operating system. It will cost you a cool $179 along with a 2-year contract with T-Mobile to own this phone.

Now I want to discuss some key features I found interesting with this phone. The Android O/S, along with most software made by Google, is built with an open-source platform. Therefore, it allows for programmers to add unlimited components utilizing the flexibility of open-source.

I think this is a great feature which will expand the capability and the flexiblity of the Android O/S. With that said, it will only be a matter of time before the O/S can integrate smoothly with both Microsoft and Apple-based applications.

Also, the G1 comes with Google Map Street View built in. It can provide you actual street views of any location covered in Google maps. Here’s a quick view of what this software would look like:

Gizmodo.com

Here’s another cool feature. The G1 is the first phone to offer the mobile version of Amazon’s mp3 store. This will give mobile users a viable alternative to iTunes for iPhone.

All the other features on this phone I found to be pretty standard among the smartphones in the market today. The G1 comes with 1GB of memory, a 3-megapixel camera, and a QWERTY keyboard which simplifies the typing process compared with the iPhone. Last, but not least, the phone comes with a removable battery.

For a detailed look and descriptioon at the new T-Mobile G1, please visit CNet.

Check out some more looks at the G1 and the different colors available: