In order to give a stiff competition to Apple’s iPhone, Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile USA has decided to come up with a mobile phone powered by Google’s Android software.

The mobile phone will be made by HTC, which is one of the largest makers of mobile phones in the world.

According to the reports, the mobile phone will feature a touch-screen as well as a five-row slide-out keyboard in an attempt to out-do Apple's popular iPhone. It is believed that the new mobile phone will have 3G connectivity, a 3 megapixel camera and a 5in by 3in screen. Apart from taking on Apple’s iPhone the smartphone from T-mobile will also fight with with other players that run software from Palm, Research In Motion, Microsoft and Nokia  to access the Internet and perform computerlike functions.

An unofficial T-Mobile blog post, reports that the new smartphone will go on sale in the United States before Christmas, perhaps as early as October.

Last year, Google opened its Android platform to handset manufactures, hoping to create a unified platform that could span a number of devices. While other carriers have plans to roll out phones based on Google's software, so far the T-Mobile device is expected to be the only Android phone available in the United States.

Earlier in February, Deutsche Telecom's T-Mobile announced that it will launch the Android-based phones in the fourth quarter of 2008. Recently the company has posted the video of this phone on YouTube.