Samsung speeds up plans for Android phone

Samsung speeds up plans for Android phone

New smartphone development 'accelerating'

Android heading to new handsets in '09

Samsung has announced that it is speeding up the development of its own version of an Android-powered handset in order to stay at the sharp end of the mobile phone market.

The company has confirmed it will sell a phone running Google's OS during 2009, which will hardly come as a shock considering the rumours that it and LG have been secretly showing prototypes for months.

"We are accelerating the development process for Google phones in order to meet the specific needs of local carriers," Samsung stated while making statement-like sounds in a statement.

US or them?

The company also confirmed T-Mobile and Sprint Nextel will be carrying the device, although presumably that's only in the US. TechRadar contacted both Samsung and T-Mobile in the UK to find out whether the new Samsung Android phone will follow the G1 onto T-Mobile too and we'll let you know as soon as any more information arises.

Although there still hasn't been a phone to follow the T-Mobile G1 handset onto the UK market sporting Android, there have been a number of handsets mooted and confirmed.

In November 2008, the Kogan Agora was tipped to be the next phone to sport Android, though it appears this handset has now been canned.

Since then, Motorola has announced it will be bringing an Android phone out in 2009 and we've seen prototypes from the likes of Lenovo and Touch Revolution in the last few months.The question now remains: will Samsung beat everyone to the punch and be the second onto the market?