G1 Android criticism: T-Mobile responds

T-Mobile has explained to TechRadar why their G1 Android phone has not got a 3.5mm headphone socket or out-of-the-box video file support.

The first Android phone to market cannot be used with regular headphones, something that has inevitably sparked criticism on mobile phone forums – and the decision to not include video playing software (apart from YouTube access) has also bemused many.

However, a T-Mobile spokesman explained that the company is not trying to compete with high-end media playing phones, although there was an admission that a regular headphone jack may have been preferable.

"One of the things we've focused on is that we've developed this with the idea of social communication in mind, using the internet to interact, being able to say what you want to say online, keep in touch with friends and contacts and so on," said T-Mobile UK's head of internet and entertainment Richard Walmsley.

Not competing with high end media phones

"So deliberately every device is not going to be focused on doing everything if you like, so the way we see it there is a range of high end phones – just like there is a range of high end cars, and people are going to buy different devices with different kind of biases.

"The keyboard is something that we think is really valuable for keeping in touch with people but it does have media functions on board.

"It would be good to offer a 3.5mm jack but I think what we are looking for is how we can adapt the existing connection.

"The headphones that come with the phone are sporting a mini USB connection."

Video nasty?

Walmsley added that there is already the option of downloading an application to play videos: "There is a video player in the Google market so there's a music player onboard and a video player available to download."

What is potentially more worrying for T-Mobile is the failure to get the device that TechRadar saw to access simple documents like Word and Excel files.

Although the phrase 'integration not there yet' was used during the demo, there is no software to open documents on the phone and the Google Docs online app could not access the files either.

No doubt it's still in Beta, but it remains to be seen if the functionality is there at launch.