The details are emerging about the precise date for release of the new HTC-made, T-Mobile Google Phone. According to the Wall Street Journal (and others) the phone will cost $199 with a two-year contract (identical pricing to the iPhone). It will actually go on sale in mid-October (although it be announced on Sept. 23).

It will have both a large touch screen and a full keyboard -- the absence of which is the iPhone's Achilles Heel. And it will have an Apps Store/marketplace. We've already seen some of the software applications, which appear impressive.

Unless the phone is flawed, it's poised to do fairly well because of the AT&T exclusive relationship with Apple in the US. The public is hungry for more capabile phones; the iPhone has primed the pump. Indeed, the iPhone is the device (rather than BlackBerry) that the Android phone will be most directly measured against of course. 

But most interesting to me is the branding. According to the Wall Street Journal: "it will showcase the Google brand." Unlike Windows Mobile, which gets third billing on its phones, Google will get top billing.

When Google launched Android the company said this wasn't a "GPhone," it was an operating system and software stack. However, out of (marketing) necessity, T-Mobile is all but compelled to position it as a Google Phone. Google is the only one of the three involved players (T-Mobile, HTC and Google) with a truly strong consumer brand. The brand "Android" has no resonance with the public either.

When others start selling Android-based phones, which they will quickly want to do if this initial phone is successful, they will face a similar branding dilemma, which will be quite interesting to watch unfold. 

So whether Google intended it or not, the "GPhone" (that won't be the official branding) is here.