Google’s latest endeavor, the Android mobile platform, was revealed to the world today. The first phone to use Android is HTC’s Dream on the T-Mobile network, available later this year and nicknamed G1 (horrid microsite!).

The features are certainly impressive – drag and drop functionality in particular looks great. Gizmodo has comprehensive coverage.

Because of the touch interface, the media has been quick to tag this as the iPhone killer. However, I think the real target probably lies elsewhere: Microsoft (and everything it traditionally stands for). [Not to mention the fact that the phone looks very ugly compared to the iPhone’s curves!]

G1 is clearly geared towards the consumer rather than the business user and there is no way (currently) so sync to Microsoft Exchange, for example. If all your information and data is in the ‘cloud’ then this will be the phone/platform for you – GMail syncing for example with ‘Push‘ technology inbuilt. However, if you still rely on a (Microsoft) server then you may have some difficulties finding the range of features you require.

My suspicion is that the phone will have less impact on iPhone sales which have been very impressive since the 3G launch. This is however another very significant move towards cloud computing and if anyone is primed to capture this space, it’s Google.