New mobile phones, which are being developed by Google along with more than 30 partners based on software called Android, are expected to debut in the fourth quarter. The carriers and programme makers are struggling to meet this deadline. In November last year, Google had said the phones were due to arrive by the second half of 2008.

Sources say that Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile USA has plans to deliver an Android-powered phone in the fourth period. However, Sprint Nextel will not be able to meet this deadline. China Mobile, which is the world’s largest wireless carrier (with almost 400 million subscriber accounts), will most probably have to delay its launch till late this year or early 2009.

Android has failed to win great support from large mobile-software developers. Some of them even admitted that it is hard to develop programmes. Google is facing trouble in managing the software development. Android has also been criticised as it is not all open-source software. Certain portions of the SDK are still proprietary and closed source.