T-Mobile has sold its one millionth G1 handset, the phone based on Google’s open-source operating system Android. The news comes as a British analyst predicts Android devices will begin outselling iPhones in three years.

The G1 figures were revealed in a T-Mobile’s latest financial results. The firm noted, “The sale of more than 1 million G1 handsets since the market launch in October 2008 alone, and a total of over 1.5 million 3G-capable handsets sold in the United States.”

The figures are impressive, though lower than those for the iPhone. During the same period, AT&T looks to have sold around 3.5-4 million iPhones in the U.S.

Of course, that’s not an entirely fair comparison as the iPhone is already established. U.S. sales for the first six months of the original iPhone were probably closer to 3 million, while the firm claimed it reached a million sales in 74 days (though that does include phones sold overseas).

Launch sales of the 3G iPhone are harder to estimate as Apple’s figures for the device were simply based on handsets leaving the manufacturers, not on people actually buying them.

In any case, both T-Mobile and the people behind Android will still likely be happy with the sales. The G1 didn’t have anywhere near the slick marketing of the iPhone, didn’t have the brand identity and goodwill established by the iPod, and will have been seen by some potential buyers as a first attempt that might be worth passing over until improved and refined Android devices come along.

That’s certainly a theory shared by British analyst firm Informa Telecoms and Media, which predicts Android-based smartphones will overtake sales of iPhones by 2012. That forecast is based largely on the logic that once Android is available on a wider range of devices – and more than one carrier in most markets – there’s a better chance customers will find a phone which meets their exact needs, while the iPhone remains a ‘like it or lump it’ deal. The firm also believes the open source element will lead to better third-party applications.

While those argument make sense, the three-year timetable seems long enough for Apple to both produce a new generation iPhone which comes across as a vastly improved product, and for customers to have waited long enough be ready to upgrade.

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Entry was posted on Friday, April 24th, 2009 at 10:49 am under Cell phones, Google, Open source.

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