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, a Dow Jones report said.

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

T-Mobile USA has said it will bring the device to users in the UK 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," a Chunghwa Telecom official, quoted by the Dow Jones report, said.

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.

Source:telecomasia.net