It appears that T-Mobile is feeling left out of this summer's tussle between the Apple iPhone 3G of AT&T and the Samsung Instinct that Sprint is backing in the fight.

The buzz is strengthening that T-Mobile will be the first to introduce a phone running with the new Google Android software. Recent news had been suggesting delays that could push the launch into 2009.

"Not happening --Google (GOOG) and its partners continue to hammer down that Android is still launching in Q4," wrote Dan Frommer of Silicon Alley Insider. "The latest update: VentureBeat narrows the launch windowdown to half of Q4, noting that the first Android phone will "most likely" launch on T-Mobile's network between Oct. 15 and Nov. 30. We've heard similar things, and this is really no surprise -- it doesn't make sense that a consumer gadget would start going on sale in December, missing a chunk of the holiday shopping season."

Om Malik said now that the iPhone is on the streets, it is only natural to start obsessing about the next "eagerly awaited device, the Google Phone."

" Now we know that Google isn’t building a device of its own (that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t), but it is much cooler to call it a Google Phone than say Android, which has a certain dweeb ring to it," Malik wrote.

Malik recapped all of the latest details:
"It will be made by HTC, well-known for making Windows Mobile phones.
It will be called Dream.
It is a smartphone with a full five-row keyboard and has a touch screen.
It will be sold by T-Mobile. No surprise then that it’s pursuing an Apple-imitating App store strategy.
Qualcomm is working with five other phone makers."


Olga Kharif at Business Week suggests the gPhone could provide an intriguing source of competition for the iPhone.

"Software is, in fact, what will make or break this gadget, which some call the gPhone. There have been plenty of touch-screen iPhone clones already, several of them from HTC. They’ve done well, but not nearly as well as Apple’s iPhone. Could the Android phone change that? Perhaps.," The Business Week article stated.

Scott Moritz at Fortune said T-Mobile and Google are running up against some difficult deadlines if they expect the gPhone to be ready for the all-important holiday shopping season.

"The tech duo is working on the hotly anticipated mobile software for T-Mobile’s so-called Dream phone," Moritz wrote. "But time is running out since the device will need clearance from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, a process that typically takes three months. Last year, Google (GOOG) made a big splash announcing it was setting its sights on the wireless market by the middle of this year. The search giant still hopes to make good on that promise, but all the pieces aren’t exactly falling in line."

Moritz noted that T-Mobile has said it is working to deliver the Android-based phone by the fourth quarter.

"But the Android project has met major challenges as Google leaves its comfort zone in an effort to push its software on to smartphones, Moritz said.