Chunghwa Telecom: Mulling Android Phone Launch End-08

TAIPEI -(Dow Jones)- Chunghwa Telecom is considering introducing the G1 smartphone, which uses the new Android platform, to the Taiwan market as soon as the end of 2008, an official at Taiwan's largest phone services provider by revenue said Wednesday.

The G1 smartphone was launched globally Tuesday by Google for carrier T-Mobile USA Inc. It is the first phone operating on the platform jointly developed by Google, Taiwan's HTC and others.

The platform gives mobile operators and device manufacturers significant freedom and flexibility to design products.

T-Mobile USA has said it will bring the device to users in the U.K. in November, and throughout Europe in the first quarter of 2009.

"The exact timing depends on when HTC plans to roll out the phone in the Taiwan market," the Chunghwa Telecom official said on condition of anonymity. He declined to give details of negotiations between the company and HTC, which manufactures the phones.

Maggie Cheng, a corporate communications official at HTC, said the company so far hasn't set a timetable for the introduction of G1 to the Taiwan market.

Chunghwa Telecom's smaller local rival Taiwan Mobile isn't ruling out offering the Android-based phone to its subscribers in the future, said a Taiwan Mobile official, who also asked not to be named.

-By Jessie Ho, Dow Jones Newswires; 88622 502-2557; jessie.ho@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

Posted to the site on 24th September 2008