After several false starts, the first Google-powered mobile phone - HTC's Dream - will go on sale in Australia on Optus post-paid plans from the middle of this month.
But the Dream, sold overseas as the G1, could be rendered obsolete before it even arrives as a US telco executive has said a successor would be launched overseas "in the coming weeks and months".
It also faces tough competition from Apple's iPhone, which has similar features but a more elegant design, analysts say.
The 3G touch-screen device has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, 3.2-megapixel camera and the ability to synchronise email, calendar, contacts and documents stored on Google's suite of online applications in realtime.
The phone, based on the Google Android operating system, will initially only be available on plans from Optus starting on February 16.
Exact details of the plans have yet to be announced but there will be four plans, starting at $59 a month, while monthly data allowances will range from 500MB to 3GB. Customers will be locked into two-year contracts.
Last year, Melbourne consumer electronics maker Ruslan Kogan made waves when he announced his brand, Kogan, would begin selling the first Android-powered phone by Christmas. The launch was pushed back until January 29 but, on January 16, Kogan announced he was aborting the release, citing "potential future interoperability issues".
The Dream, sold in the US and Britain since October last year, is the only Android phone on the market today. The Australian launch will be the first time an Android device has been sold in the Asia-Pacific region.
But other manufacturers including Motorola, Lenovo, Sony Ericsson and Samsung have all announced plans to begin selling phones based on the Google operating system this year.
While Optus is the first Australian telco to take a punt on Android, Telstra appears to be cool on the idea.
In a recent interview with CNET News.com, Telstra chief executive Sol Trujilo said the company was looking at testing Android but so far it "isn't at the stage where it's really robust".
"It's still in evolution right now. It's very Google-centric. And there are limitations. We are hopeful that it will be more open, because it offers a great alternative operating platform. But it's not there today," he said.
Meanwhile, loss-making handset maker Motorola announced during its fourth-quarter earnings call this week that it was shifting its focus from the Windows Mobile platform to Android. It will unveil its first Android-powered device in the second quarter of this year.
Like the iPhone with its App Store, the G1 supports third-party applications that can be accessed for free on the device from the Android Market. Analysts have predicted that the Google platform might have trouble attracting software developers because, unlike Apple's App Store, Google doesn't allow them to charge for accessing applications.
The phone also comes preloaded with a suite of Google online applications including Gmail, Google search, Google Maps, Google Calendar, Google Talk and YouTube. YouTube has been redesigned to be speedy and intuitive on a mobile screen, while, with Google Maps Street View, users can pan the view 360 degrees just by moving around with the phone.
Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi said she believed "demand for the G1 will be much lower than for the iPhone", which she said had a more "sleek" and "iconic" design. But she said the G1's tight integration with Google services such as Street View was a unique selling point.
"The phone will provide a taste of what the Android platform is capable of, but we expect teething issues and some limitations," Milanesi said.
"The main challenge for Google and its manufacturing partners will be to come up with interesting devices with a very good UI [user interface] and accompanying services that appeal to consumers."
But the G1 could already be obsolete by the time Australians pull it out of the box. T-Mobile's senior VP of engineering and operations, Neville Ray, said in a recent interview with Fierce Wireless that more G-series Google phones would be launched "in the coming weeks and months".
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