According to Unwired View, Orange France has at least six Android phones in their 2009 line-up, to include a rather awful pink HTC Hero (looks very T-Mobile G1-esque to us) and a bunch of others from Sony Ericsson, LG, Samsung and Motorola. They cite French mobile news site Mobinaute, who apparently got it from someone deep within Orange France.

Of course, Orange UK is denying everything, including any kind of roadmap for either France or UK HQ.

The news comes as something as a surprise, as Acer has so far favoured Windows Mobile for its handesets.

The source also said the phone will be one of four handsets to launch then, which makes us think that the other three could be the similarly named, but WinMo 6.5-powered, F1, C1 and L1 phones announced at an Acer event earlier this year.

The slides we saw looked substantially more exciting than Acer’s recent first foray into handset-ville, so we’re a little excited to see what kind of Android bunnies they’re going to pull out of their hat.

The iPhone, which is currently dominating the market, is expected to get pushed aside when more Android powered handsets hit the market.

O2 has shifted one million iPhones since the device launched last summer, while T-Mobile UK, the exclusive carrier of the first (and currently only available) Android phone, said the G1 now makes up 20% of its contract sales.

Meanwhile, both the Android and iPhone OS are encroaching on the sales of Symbian smartphones, which include Nokia handsets. Though Symbian remains the top-selling OS, less than half of the smartphones sold in 2008 ran on Symbian, compared to 65% the year before.

Informa said that open source platforms were key to growth, because they mean more apps for users, and cost-cutting for manufacturers.

And with the second Android phone, the HTC Magic, landing in April, and most manufacturers having announced at least one handset running on the OS, perhaps the iPhone’s throne is shorter-lived than they imagine.

The operator, which is the sole operator for the latest Android device, plans to release the HTC Magic in April this year. Vodafone managed to snag the exclusive on the touch-screen, QWERTY-less follow up to last year’s first-Android-phone-ever, the T-Mobile G1.

Here are the specs as we know them so far -  a 3.2-megapixel camera, 3.2-inch QVGA touch-screen and impressive internet specs to the tune of HSDPA, trackball and navigation pad for extra-smooth web browsing, and support for POP3 and IMAP3 mail. And it marks the second phone to run on Android, the open-source mobile operating system from Google that’s been the subject of oh so much hype, despite having been on a total of one handset.

Android is a low cost competitor to the iPhone, with limitless application possibilities, but operators and manufacturers may need to risk their own brand being overshadowed by Google if they are to take advantage.

Android allows anyone to develop applications for it; making it a means for operators to tap into revenue from mobile advertising.

Nick Sharp, vice president and general manager of EMEA and Australasia at the analyst WebTrends, says: ‘Part of Android’s cachet is its encouragement of third-party development. As a result, many businesses are already creating applications to increase brand awareness and engagement.’

Google has managed to rack up a list of potential partners including Sony Ericsson, Samsung, Motorola, LG, Toshiba and Huawei, collectively known as the Open Handset Alliance.

Director of strategy analytics Neil Mawston says: ‘Android is a relatively low cost, user friendly open operating system that has the support of Google’s deep pockets and famous brand.’

Despite excitement, Android is yet to achieve significant penetration. T-Mobile’s G1 Google phone (pictured), an HTC manufactured phone, landed in stores in October 2008 and is the only Android handset to be released so far.

Mobile World Congress 2009 brought developments, but the only confirmed release was the HTC Magic, exclusive to Vodafone.

Patchy reports of potential releases also found their way through. Chinese company Huawei demoed an Android prototype, which it’s set to launch in Q3. Samsung may also be on the verge, with one manufacturer source saying: ‘It was thought that Samsung would announce plans for an Android phone at Mobile World Congress, but they obviously weren’t ready.’

Motorola intends to use Android as part of its comeback strategy this year, and T-Mobile is reportedly in talks with HTC about a G3.

Adam Leach, principle analyst at Ovum, says: ‘There has been a lot of talk within the industry, but people were expecting more announcements at Mobile World Congress.’

Despite this, Mawston adds: ‘We expect Android to be a top-tier OS player globally within three years.’

What’s in it for operators?
The G1 is already being marked as a success for T-Mobile, which has accredited it to 20% of its sales in Q4 2008. One industry source says: ‘For the operators it’s a revenue stream generator - they all have their own applications content, so they earn money from consumers’ data usage on the handset.’

The network exclusive pattern that Android has followed so far also appeals to operators. Another industry source says: ‘The operator can use an exclusive to pull in acquisitions. Just look at the iPhone.’

However, operators may be wary of a platform that could potentially offer mobile services that directly compete with their own. Mawston says: ‘Android could end up cannibalising the services of the very same operators that support it. For example, Google Maps could compete in the navigation segment.’

The take up by operators is dependent on how open Google will be. Leach says: ‘It is a way to increase ad inventory, but the biggest challenge [for Android] will be; can they be consistent for third-party developers?’

What’s in it for manufacturers?
HTC has been the only manufacturer to dip its toes into Android so far. But with a number of major handset manufacturers already part of the Open Handset Alliance, sources are only willing to speculate about who will be out next.

Sources say it will be a chance to claw back the market share from Apple. ‘It definitely undermines the Apple model,’ adds one manufacturer.

However, the threat of brand loss is a key issue, especially for more traditional manufacturer brands. There was no HTC branding on the G1, and it is unknown whether Vodafone will market its handset as the ‘G2′ or the ‘HTC magic’.

A second manufacturer source says the lack of branding is key. He adds: ‘You’ve got to remember why Google is doing this - they want to tap into the advertising revenue and extend their brand.’

Symbian vs Android
One manufacturer that almost certainly won’t be joining in with Android is Nokia. It has spent 10 years developing its operating system Symbian, which is at the heart of all of Nokia’s handsets. Leach says: ‘Symbian has been a long play for Nokia - it is certainly not going to roll over now.’

Symbian is the dominant operating system, owning at least 40% of the market. But many criticise it for being cumbersome and hard to develop. One manufacturer source says: ‘Symbian is not as flexible as Android.’

Baseball Superstars 2008 is an arcade-style baseball game and Path of a Warrior is a mobile MMORPG. Trial versions of both these titles have been on the Android Market’s Top 20 list since their December release.

And for the most casual of casual gamers, Super Boom Boom is a one-button game about pirates looking for treasure - your role is to aim and launch a cannon at a bunch of towers.

The games will launch when the Android Market starts supporting paid apps. They are only playable right now if you own a T-Mobile G1, but keep an eye out for launches around mid-year of the tasty HTC Magic and maybe even Huawei’s cloaked-in-secrecy Android device.

The inclusion of the new game is one of the highlights of the recent announcement that the Android operating system will be joined by paid applications via the Android Marketplace, according to The Telegraph website, an area which has, up until now, been populated by over 1,000 free apps.

As such, T-Mobile has also announced its 10 most popular free apps downloaded from the site. They include:

1: Weather Channel
2: MySpace Mobile
3; ShopSavvy
4: Daily Horoscope
5: Free Dictionary Org
6: Ringdroid ringtone creator
7: Backgrounds, which provides themed screens for the G1
8; Barcode Scanner, a simple price comparison service that really works
9: Save MMS, which allows G1 users to save images in picture messages to their mobile phone
10: Compare Everywhere

At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week, Samsung’s stand was notably missing any new Android handsets, but it has told the industry to expect three such handset by the end of the year.

According to Reuters, the head of product strategy at the Korean manufacturer, Won-Pyo Hong, said though it hadn’t been confirmed whether the US or Europe would see the phones first, both markets would have them by year end.

Android phones didn’t make much of a showing at Mobile World Congress this year - save for HTC’s G1 followup, the Magic - but as almost every manufacturer has vowed some kind of Android device this year, look out for more announcements here.

The KS360, a low cost phone which features a full QWERTY keyboard, will hold the Android operating system and will be released (or, rather, re-released) during Summer of this year in the UK. A price has yet to be announced.

Apparently, the specifications of the Android variant of the KS360 will remain the same and will not undergo a Prada-like change in technology, keeping with its QWERTY keyboard and 2MP camera.

LG will follow with two further Android handset later in the Summer months. Marketing Manager Jeremy Newing told T3, that, “This year is all about social networking,” said Newing, “and Android obviously opens a world of possibilities.”

A spokesman for Huawei has announced that the plans for the device are official, and hinted that the exclusivity of it may go to T-Mobile.

When we saw the phone it was kept securely behind a pane of glass, but the announcement was made at Mobile World Congress earlier this week in Barcelona. Huawei has already discussed their plans for it, and at least two more Android phones this year.

The phone will be out in two months, and is already in good company at Mobile World Congress, with HTC just announcing their latest Android handset, the Magic, exclusive to Vodafone.