T-Mobile and Huawei have teamed up to offer what is being dubbed as the world’s first pay-as-you-go (prepay) Android smartphone. Both companies held a press briefing in London this morning to unveil the device – branded ‘Pulse’ (pictured, left) – which will be available in Europe from October. It will retail in the UK at £179.99. Targeting the 18-24 age group, T-Mobile said Pulse will bring Android handsets, which have previously been targeted at the high-end of the market, to a wider set of customers. T-Mobile will be the exclusive operator provider of the device in the UK, as well as in seven other European markets. The device is T-Mobile’s third Android-powered smartphone (following deals with Taiwanese vendor HTC) and the operator is clearly backing the high-profile, but still nascent, mobile operating system (OS). In a presentation, T-Mobile UK declared that Android devices “are the biggest drivers of data in the mobile market.” 

For Huawei, the move marks its first commercial release of an Android handset, albeit the Pulse contains no Huawei branding. A spokesperson for Huawei told Mobile Business Briefing that the Chinese company will “provide a full series of Android-powered handsets” from next year but declined to reveal specific details. As well as existing Android handset suppliers HTC and Samsung, new products from the likes of Motorola and LG are expected in the coming months. It’s worth noting that the Google-backed OS has a long way to go before it can take market share from rivals. According to Gartner, Symbian held a 51 percent share of the smartphone OS market in 2Q09, while RIM and Apple grew their shares year-on-year. Android’s share was just under 2 percent of the market.