T-Mobile USA has issued a statement to trumpet strong pre-sales of its G1, the first mobile handset to run Google's Android operating system.

"Given the great anticipation and the heavy pre-sale demand for the T-Mobile G1 with Google, we nearly tripled the number of phones initially available for delivery on our Oct. 22 launch date, and have sold through them all," says the statement.

Surprised? Not at the scale of the demand, although the fact that the operator was able to triple its stock pre-launch is more impressive, given the usual product scarcities for high-profile consumer gadgets.

The news follows reports last week that the operator intends to sell up to 500,000 G1s by Christmas.

The pre-sale news also means there should be a healthy audience for Android games from Day One, although the fact that publishers won't be able to charge for them may provide a dilemma.

Some, including Glu Mobile and Namco Networks, have already announced plans to give away titles for free while waiting for the Android Market to support paid-for apps.