Google's Android-powered Mobile Phone Launch Faces Delay

The launch of new smartphones designed around Google's Android software may not be available until the fourth quarter of this year, as several handset companies and operators are having problems getting Android phones ready for a launch still in 2008.

The Wall Street Journal cited some unnamed sources as saying that some companies developing the Android-powered phone may miss even that delayed deadline.

The Internet search powerhouse originally planned to have Android phones on the market in the 2nd half of 2008. But, people would have to wait till the fourth quarter of 2008 to grab the “Google Phone,” developed by Google and more than 30 partners, the Journal reported on Monday.

According to a person familiar with the matter said that Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile USA expects to deliver an Android-powered phone in the fourth period, but Sprint Nextel Corp will not be able to launch such a device this year.

Likewise, China Mobile, the world's largest wireless carrier that has nearly 400 million subscribers and another Google partner in the Android project, has abandoned its plans to launch Android-powered handset until late this year or early 2009, the Journal reported, citing sources. China's leading wireless operator delayed the planned launch of new handset due to problems in developing a Chinese language version of the Operating System.

Launched last year, on November 5, Google’s Android is an open source software platform that includes an Operating System (OS), middleware and key applications. It is designed to take advantage of Internet services for mobility and is expected to give stiff competition to Windows Mobile and other handset operating systems.

More than 30 technology and mobile companies joined the Open Handset Alliance to launch Android as "the first open, complete, and free platform created specifically for mobile devices". The alliance includes handset makers Motorola and LG Electronics, software maker Google, speech recognition expert Nuance Communications and eBay and GPS specialist SiRF Technology, among others.

The Linux-based Android features an Application Framework enabling reuse and replacement of components, a Dalvik virtual machine optimized for mobile devices, Integrated browser based on the open source WebKit engine, Optimized graphics powered by a custom 2D graphics library; 3D graphics based on the OpenGL ES 1.0 specification (hardware acceleration optional) and QLite for structured data storage.

In addition, the Android platform includes Media support for common audio, video, and still image formats (MPEG4, H.264, MP3, AAC, AMR, JPG, PNG, GIF) and Rich development environment including a device emulator, tools for debugging, memory and performance profiling, and a plugin for the Eclipse IDE.

GSM Telephony, Bluetooth, EDGE, 3G, and WiFi , Camera, GPS, compass, and accelerometer (hardware dependent) are the other features of Android.