Phone carrier Vodafone will launch the new Google Android smartphone called the HTC Magic in Germany next week.

It can record video, sports a nifty mobile address book, has touchscreen technology and has a qwerty touch keyboard (more below). The price will start from 1 Euro, depending on the contract you buy. It offers WLAN, HSDPA und GPS, and comes in white and black.

This gives Google its second phone in the global market at a time when smartphone fervor has reached full frenzy.

Dubbed the G2 because it is the second Google Android phone (the first phone was released by the same device maker, HTC, but on the T-Mobile carrier), the German market launch will be joined by France, the UK, Austria, Spain and Italy over the next few days. More countries are expected to be announced thereafter, with Asia looking to come on strong soon too. China Mobile will launch the Magic in June.

Apple is just killing the market these days with its iPhone and the related iPod touch, announcing record financial results in the first quarter, in part because of the success of those devices. They are popular because of the sleekness of their design, touchscreen technology and their operating system platform which lets developers easily make applications for them.

Apple owns those platforms, and so Android’s operating system — which offers competing technology — is the easiest way for other carriers and device makers to build phones that compete.

Vodafone was holding a press conference in Germany today to announce further details of the HTC Magic.

The essentials about the Magic are as follows:

• qwerty touch keyboard (which you can have a look at here):
• the G2 can now record video
• Mobile Address Book. (This is the technology that Vodafone acquired when it bought Zyb)

The G2 comes subsidized with a data plan. Depending which data plan one chooses the device costs as little as 1 Euro. Data plans range from 24,95 Euro to 119,95 Euro per month.

[Photo credit: Nico Lumma, Smatch.com]

Read the original article at Venture Beat:
Vodafone blitzes Europe with second Android phone, HTC Magic