T-Mobile uses custom apps and accessories to promote its new ”myTouch 3G.”

Google’s Android is going mainstream.

The G1, the first phone to run the search giant’s mobile platform, has been a magnet for tech-savvy people, selling more than 1 million handsets since October 2008. Now wireless operator T-Mobile wants Google’s ( GOOG – news – people ) second Android phone, which will be available later this summer, to attract a broader audience and sell even more briskly.

To reach the rank and file, T-Mobile is retraining its staff and commissioning new applications for the phone. It also created a new brand, called myTouch, to highlight the ways users can personalize the device. “We know we’ll get tech-oriented folks, but our real focus is the [general] consumer,” says Sajal Sahay, T-Mobile USA’s director of product marketing. The phone will go on sale in August for $199 with a two-year contract.

The changes begin with the name: It will be the T-Mobile myTouch 3G with Google or myTouch 3G for short. The idea, says Sahay, is to promote the idea of a phone “made by you, for you,” since people are more likely to bond with gadgets they can customize.

In crafting the myTouch, manufacturer HTC tried to address many of the shortcomings of the G1. Users complained most about the G1’s clunky form factor, short battery life and inability to access corporate e-mail, says Farah Houston, a T-Mobile product development manager. By eliminating the G1’s slide-out keyboard, HTC made the myTouch 40 grams lighter. It also tweaked the hardware and software to yield an extra hour of talk-time battery life and built in support for Microsoft’s ( MSFT – news – people ) Exchange ActiveSync e-mail.

The myTouch also boasts twice the built-in memory (512 megabytes) of the G1 and runs a more recent version of Android (version 1.5) that includes a virtual keyboard, faster Web browsing and more video- and photo-sharing features. (Some of these changes aren’t specific to T-Mobile or the U.S.; the phone is a global device that was released in Europe earlier this year under the name HTC Magic.) HTC retained the G1’s most popular features, such as the large touch-screen, a track ball for one-handed navigation and dedicated “home” and “back” buttons.