As the T-Mobile G1 went on sale on Wednesday across the U.S., you couldn’t see the tumult associated with the iPhone 3G, but there were definitely people lining up. Thankfully, there wasn’t the undignified standing in line for days beforehand, indicative of the fanaticism often associated with Apple enthusiasts, but it was clear that interest was there, and that the G1 and its Android OS do offer a viable alternative in the growing smartphone market.

As more and more details are being released about Google’s Android Market, it becomes more and more clear that Apple’s walled garden of an App Store is in trouble. Why? Well because of the huge difference in openness as far as developer policy is concerned. For your perusal, a statement made by Google regarding the market:

"If you're a developer, you will be able to register and upload your applications starting next Monday, 2008-10-27, when we've wrapped up a few final details. In order to make sure that each developer is authenticated and responsible for their apps, you will need to register and pay a one time $25 application fee. Once registered, your apps can be made available to users without further validation or approval."

Google has resolved the issue of malicious applications in a very elegant way, which harks to self-policing mechanisms on YouTube: the community itself will flag inappropriate applications, and Google will subsequently remove them. Apple has no excuse now for its draconian approval measures, which sometimes denied a developer the right to publish an application with little in the way of reason. Lest they amend their policy, they’ll find themselves with a large number of mobile developers moving from developing for Apple, and going to the Android OS.

This is especially likely since, even though the Android is so far present only on one handset for one carrier, there are several devices being built with the Android in mind, including a phone built around the concept of social networking from Motorola, and another device, the G2, from the G1’s developer HTC.

Android’s developer team has also released the full code for the operating system as open-source software under the Apache license. We’re expecting to see many interesting ports of the Android to new or existing devices. One particular poster on an Android-related forum even had plans for scratch-building a laptop using Intel’s Moorestown system-on-a-chip platform. In short, there’s a whole new world of possibilities.

The existing handset, the G1, has its own share of unique appeal to draw in potential new smartphone clients. Aside from having most of the features present in the iPhone and expected of smartphones today, the slide-out physical QWERTY keyboard is appealing for many folk who dislike the idea of the iPhone’s virtual keyboard, and prefer to get touchy-feely with real buttons.

The G1, far from being a market-killer, is important because it sets a precedent. It’s the starting point of a new direction, and new openness in the mobile market; one which competitors would be wise to heed, if they wish to not be left behind.