This morning the Android Market formally launched, coinciding with the arrival of the T-Mobile G1, the first Android phone. There’s a showcase that features a sampling of the more than 50 existing apps, with many more to come. All the apps are currently free, with paid apps to come in the first quarter of 2009.

Developers keep 70 percent of the revenue from paid apps, with carriers taking most of the rest. Unlike Apple, Google isn’t taking a chunk of the price. Next Monday all third party developers will be able to start uploading their apps.

Very quickly we should see hundreds of Android apps, based on the Apple experience. But unlike Apple, there will be no quality control in the Android Market other than the community, which will be able to rate/review the apps.

I haven’t had any hands-on experience with any of these applications, but TechCrunch provides an overview of their  top 10 Android apps.

It’s widely speculated that T-Mobile presold as many as 1.5 million G1 phones, although that figure may be overblown. But there’s no doubt the phone is popular and will benefit from the ground broken by the iPhone. Indeed, yesterday Apple reported that it sold almost 7 million iPhones in one quarter, since the July introduction of the 3G version of the device.

CNET does a speed test comparing the iPhone and the G1 (the G1 wins). And Google promotes the G1 on its homepage:

Related Topics: Google: Mobile

About The Author: Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land. He writes a personal blog Screenwerk, about SoLoMo issues and connecting the dots between online and offline. He also posts at Internet2Go, which is focused on the mobile Internet. Follow him @gsterling. See more articles by Greg Sterling