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Rumor has it that the launch date for a widely anticipated Google Android (News - Alert)-based handset is Oct. 13.

 

According to a post today on huliq.com, a Hickory, North Carolina-based news service that’s owned by Hareyan Publishing LLC, T-Mobile (News - Alert) USA will take pre-orders from its online store on Oct. 17.

 

“Now, HTC (News - Alert) Dream G1 has got some leaked images which have been floating around the Internet before the launch date,” the post says. “In the picture, the HTC Dream G1 handset seems to have a pretty unique design, which its bottom has a slight tilt and a trackball is found there too. But this adds extra length which tends to make it easily to poke out while it’s in the pocket.”

 

 

Rumors emerged earlier this month that Google’s (News - Alert) Android mobile phone platform –delayed and cloaked in secrecy, to the reported annoyance of the development world – would become available as early as October and, according to The New York Times, that T-Mobile would become the first carrier to offer a phone that’s powered by the software.

 

Not everyone is bowled over by what they’ve heard about the device.

 

Jason Perlow, who blogs for ZDNet.com, which is operated by CBS-owned CNET Netowrks, said in one recent entry that what he’s learned of the device makes it sound as though it couldn’t be considered an upgrade from his Blackberry 8820.

 

Among what Perlow says he’s long envisioned in a digital convergence device are: built-in WiFi peer-to-peer mesh networking, 40 gigabytes of hard disk space, 1024x768 pixel video camera and a user interface that ran on Mac, PC and Linux desktops.

 

“The HTC Dream and Android only addresses some of these desires of mine,” Perlow says. “It doesn’t have removable batteries to my knowledge and has no video capture capability in its 3MP camera, nor does it have mesh networking out of the box.”

 

Yet HTC is known for innovative mobile device design, experts say.

 

In a recent blog entry, TMC President and Group Editor-in-Chief Rich Tehrani notes some developments in mobile phones that have come from computer companies.

 

“First, HTC a company known for making really leading-edge PDAs around the turn of the century got into the smartphone business and provided a solid alternative to traditional cell phone makers and phone from Treo/Palm/RIM (all three of which could be considered computer companies as well),” Tehrani writes.

According to the huliq.com entry, T-Mobile’s handset will be available, under a two-year contract, for $199.

 

“You’ll also need a GMail account to setup the HTC G1 handset,” the entry says. “Since it runs on Android, do expect that it comes bundled with tons of Google services. What are known now are those common ones such as maps with Street View, You Tube, IM and text, Gmail.”