T-Mobile Utilizes Accelerometers in New G1 With Android

Today’s release of the T-mobile G1 cell phone (with Google’s Android platform) marks an important step for three seemingly unrelated fields: video games, satellite navigation, and GPS technology. The common thread in all three and an integral part of the G1 (as well as Apple’s iPhone) is a tiny piece of technology called an accelerometer.

Google has partnered with T-Mobile, to officially launch the G1 at its retail stores in 95 cities across the United States Wednesday. The phone is priced at $179 and as many as 1.5 million existing T-Mobile customers have reportedly pre-ordered the devices. Apple has reported sales of 10 million iPhones within the 2008 calendar year.  Today Apple reported $11.68 billion in revenue for its fiscal fourth quarter, with iPhone sales accounting for 39 percent of that total.

So why would cell phones need accelerometers? Well for starters, as the popularity of video game consoles like the Nintendo Wii has increased, so too has the need for motion based, active gaming capabilities in phones. The Android platform used by Google’s G1 uses a more advanced accelerometer than most other cell phones and the upgrade in quality is to provide gaming capabilities for popular titles like “Labyrinth Lite” and “Dynoliscious.” G1 users can expect several new games that utilize accelerometer technology. The G1 and iPhone are the first cell phones of their kind to deliver satellite navigation to your palm. Because of the G1’s open source Android platform, developers already are creating new applications based on the capabilities of accelerometers and satellite technology.

Accelerometers are near and dear to the 8th Continent Project because of our affiliation with Lumedyne (an advanced accelerometer developer and winner of the 2007 8C Project Business Plan Competition). Lumedyne is a great example of a commercial enterprise utilizing Space 2.0 technology for commercial applications.