When will the first Android phones hit the market? It depends on who you ask. Some say the schedule has slipped and we won’t see phones until early next year, while others, most notably HTC, continue to maintain that the first Android phones are right on time to ship by year end. Either way, they’re coming. So what will these first new phones look like? A new video on YouTube provides a tantalizing glimpse.
The video is rumored to be of the new Android-based HTC Dream phone. While Google showed off a prototype of the phone to developers in May, the video shows some updates, including a swivel-out keyboard and a variety of software, such as Gmail and Google Apps.
And that tidbit led some to speculate that HTC’s Android phone (for the T-Mobile network) would arrive even earlier than the fourth quarter, and more in the September 2008 range.
But don’t believe it. A T-Mobile employee on the Android Guys website squashed that rumor pretty vehemently. He says:
“There has been no marketing behind the device by T-Mobile, nor any handset maker. We have been expecting the HTC “Dream” device, but that’s not to say the first model couldn’t be from someone else. They won’t just sneak Android under the radar like this. It’s expected to be one of the two biggest players in the mobile OS industry. Would you launch the device as an “Oh yeah, here’s that Google phone that everyone has been talking about” with no fanfare?”
The only fact that’s indisputable is that a new Android phone will be out somewhere around the end of 2008 or beginning of 2009. It should be a happy holiday season for Google, and phone makers like HTC.
