Rumours Abound Regarding Second Google Phone

After the success of the first mobile phone using Google's Android operating system, the tech world is turning its attention to the follow up. So far, there's even a claim that it could involve a touch-screen handset previously pulled from release in the United States.

Android is an open source system, meaning phone manufacturers are free to use and modify it as they wish. It's a rival to Microsoft's Windows Mobile and Apple's own system used on the iPhone. The first Android phone, T-Mobile's G1, has sold more than half a million so far and is even stocked in Wal-Mart.

The first question is this: when will the next Android phone appear? It's known that major firms such as Sony Ericsson will release Android phones as early as next summer but it seems there'll be another T-Mobile handset even sooner; estimates range from 26 January to some time in April of 2009.

Such a device would almost certainly be made by the G1's creators, HTC Corp. Given their current activity, it appears likely the next Android phone will have a touch-screen rather than a slide-out keyboard, with some speculating it will also include a high-spec camera. That could even be used for video calling, though the 3G network most smartphones run on these days isn't really up to that task yet. (Source: technewsworld.com)

It's not certain that the next Android phone will be exclusive to the T-Mobile network. If it is available with other carriers, it may have to be renamed from the obvious G2 title as T-Mobile has an exclusive agreement to use 'G1', 'G2' and 'G3'. The 'G' is, in all likelihood, designed to take advantage of Google's strong brand recognition.

If HTC is producing the phone to the rumored specifications, it's possible it may use the Touch HD. That's a high-tech touch-screen phone notable for a larger but lower-resolution screen than most similar devices. While the phone is only available outside America, HTC has sought and received a license to market it in the United States. (Source: pocketnow.com)

It's worth remembering that the Android system doesn't currently support touch-screens and requires a traditional keyboard. However, as an open source system, it wouldn't be a major administrative hurdle to develop a new edition of the software.