TechFaith Wireless and Qigi Future Technology announced a smartphone that runs the Google Android mobile Linux stack. The i6-Goal is only the second Android phone to launch, and reportedly includes a 2.8-inch touchscreen, quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth, and a two-megapixel camera.

T-Mobile launched an Eric Clapton-backed Fender Limited Edition of its Android-based MyTouch 3G phone. Meanwhile, China-based Hisense announced an HS-E90 Android phone, Motorola is launching an Android app store in China, and Taiwan's Gigabyte is rumored to be releasing an Android handset in Russia, say reports.

A few days before the launch of Windows 7, Acer has released the first netbook to ship with the Google Android operating system. And a juicy tidbit has come out of an early review: Android comes with Mozilla Firefox for Web browsing, not Google’s own Chrome browser or the Android browser that comes on mobile phones.

Palm may not have much of an appetite for Google's Android platform for mobile phones, but Motorola definitely does.

Google will give $10 million to the developers who build the best applications for Android, the open source platform Google designed for building mobile phones. Google says it hopes to spark innovation with the so-called Android Developer Challenge, announced today concurrently with the release of Android. The software development kit is now available for download on the Android site.

As we've noted before, the T-Mobile G1 or "Google phone," based on Android, is doing better than expected. In 2009, many Android phones are going to be appearing, and as applications and innovative designs proliferate, they could give the iPhone a run for its money. Today, photos are appearing of Lenovo's Ophone, which is an Android phone that it has slated for delivery in China.

AT&T announced plans to launch five Android devices from Dell, HTC, and Motorola in the first half of the year, as well as two Palm WebOS phones, say reports. In separate announcements, AT&T and T-Mobile said they had completed upgrades to provide HSPA 7.2 service across their 3G networks, says eWEEK.

Motorola posted and then removed specs for its Verizon-destined, Android-based "Droid" phone, says eWEEK. Meanwhile, Motorola "Calgary" and "Zeppelin" Android phones have been tipped, T-Mobile launched Huawei's Android-based "Pulse" phone in the UK, an HTC Desire photo has appeared, and HTC released source code for the Hero, say various reports.

The delayed Android 2.1 update for the Motorola Droid is starting to tarnish the successful launch of Verizon's first smartphone to run on Google's open source mobile operating system, according to posts at Motorola's Facebook page.