Report: Verizon, T-Mobile launching Motorola Android phones

Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA will launch Motorola-made phones running on Google's Android platform before the end of the year, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. The report, which cited unnamed people familiar with the matter, did not provide a timeline for when the carriers would launch the phones.

Motorola has wagered much of the future of its handset division on its success with Android. In late April, Motorola co-CEO Sanjay Jha said the company would have Android devices on the market by the end of the year with multiple carriers, and not just in North America. "We are in detailed discussion with multiple carriers around the world," Jha, the head of Motorola's mobile devices division, said at the time. "It won't be one carrier in one region. It will be multiple carriers in multiple regions."

The news is not entirely surprising considering that T-Mobile has indicated it will launch more Android phones this year and not all will be made by HTC, which makes both the G1 and the just-announced myTouch 3G. Verizon has also been upfront about its Android intentions . Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam said in late May that the carrier would launch Android phones "in the near future." Currently, Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile are the only two U.S. carriers in the Google-led Open Handset Alliance.

According to the Journal, T-Mobile will launch a touchscreen phone with a slide-out keyboard. The phone's software will have an emphasis on social networking, with built-in software from some popular social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter. All that is known about the Motorola-made Android phone that Verizon will launch is that it will have hardware similar to the T-Mobile device.

For more:
- see this WSJ article (sub. req.)

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