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Apparently the Android third party locomotive is back on schedule. According to Digitimes, HTC CFO Hui-Ming Cheng has announced that the mobile device company will begin to ship its first Android-based handsets to it’s ODM clients in the fourth quarter of this year just as scheduled, despite numerous rumors of delays, OS development problems and bad feelings galore.

On top of the Android release, HTC has shipped Touch Diamond handsets to 50 telecom operators in more than 30 countries according to Cheng, and is expected to start shipping Xperia X1 handsets to Sony Ericsson in the third quarter.

If ODM vendors get Andoid phones in Q4, that means they may reach the hands of consumers by Q1 of 2009. If Android turns out to be the feature loaded game changer it was originally supposed to be and is installed on some quality HTC handsets, then that is very big news for the smartphone market. Considering the many problems Apple has had with the 3G iPhone roll out, including the MobileMe fiasco and now build quality problems (hairline fractures, spontaneous combustion) the fabled Google-phone may still be able to shake things up. A month ago I was pretty sure Apple had eaten Google’s lunch in the mobile sector…now, I am not so sure anymore.

Dare I say it, but is Apple…vulnerable?

Zealot (445 Posts) - Website | Twitter | Facebook

By day a department manager and writer for a major network device vendor...by night Zealot stalks the mean magnetic streets, striking fear into the hearts of bandwidth abusers and theme park mascots. Zealot has been involved with mobile devices for more than a decade now, starting off with dumb phones, moving to PDAs and then to smartphones, notebooks and netbooks with the odd PMP thrown in. Most of his mobile time currently is spent on a Treo Pro, Zune HD, Thinkpad T61, Gigabyte M912M or a Hackintoshed Compaq Mini 704. He proudly groks the Geek community and considers himself a Neo Maxi Zune Dweebie (thanks Will Wheaton!).