Android phone may launch with T-Mobile this fall

The first Android-enabled phone may be hitting the US market within the next couple of months, if recent buzz ends up being accurate. The device will be made by HTC and available through T-Mobile sometime before the holiday season, possibly as early as October. Assuming all goes smoothly, Google will live up to its promise of delivering Android during the second half of 2008. 
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The news of T-Mobile's Android launch comes by way of "people briefed on the company's plans" who spoke to the New York Times. The launch date of the device is up in the air due to uncertainties in the Federal Communication Commission's timing—the Commission must first approve both the hardware and software for use on US cell networks before it can be sold to customers. Reportedly, executives at all three companies (Google, HTC, and T-Mobile) plan to announce the phone in September in order to benefit from impending holiday season sales. Our own sources within T-Mobile acknowledged that an Android phone is on the way, but declined to answer any questions regarding a launch date.  

The HTC device in question is nicknamed the "Dream," and various sightings of it have been making the rounds on the Internet, as it's one of the first (and one of the most impressive) Android devices that anyone has seen. A video of someone using the device and its Android software popped up on YouTube late last week, but it's not as if HTC's involvement with Google was ever a huge secret. The Android-capable HTC Dream, with its large touchscreen and slide-out keyboard, was even demoed at the Google I/O conference earlier this year. 

Many are expecting the first Android phone to rival Apple's iPhone in a number of ways. For one, it will be another major mobile operating system that isn't provided by one of the Old Guard (Nokia, Motorola, etc.), and from the looks of it, it could end up being pretty slick compared to most other mobile offerings. Google claims the platform will be open to third-party developers—a rarity among mobile phones in general and a stark contrast with Apple, which has made headlines for its new development platform. On the flip side, Apple's iPhone SDK and App Store make for a very smooth buying experience from the consumer perspective, and the process for distributing software to Android devices hasn't been revealed yet. 

In June, it was rumored that the first Android phones would be delayed and hit the market later than originally planned. A number of mobile phone operators that planned to roll out Android-equipped devices claimed that they had run into roadblocks that could hold them back until the end of the year, if not 2009. In fact, sources within Sprint stated at the time that the company wanted to launch an Android phone this year, but was no longer able to do so, thanks to Google's plans with T-Mobile. 

Google insisted that everything was still on track for an Android launch during the second half of 2008, and that's still technically true—as long as a single Android phone is available before the end of the year, that goal will be met. It's looking more and more like that phone will now be the HTC Dream from T-Mobile, which will no doubt be hailed as a major step for Android.What about the others? Hopefully, those that are experiencing delays will be able to follow shortly after T-Mobile's launch, and carriers in the US (and around the world) will be able to offer a device that will have a mass appeal similar to that of the iPhone.