Chinese mobile maker gunning for Android

Chinese handset maker Huawei Technologies said Monday at the GSMA Global World Congress 2009 in Barcelona that it plans to start selling phones using Google's Android operating system later this year.

Details about the upcoming phones are still scarce. But the company said it's partnering with a design consultancy company. The device is still in development and is expected to hit the market in the third quarter of this year.

Huawei is a large telecommunications equipment maker that has been manufacturing handsets it sells to wireless operators, which then resell the devices under their own brands.

James Chen, a marketing executive for Huawei, told Reuters that the company is also considering phones that use other operating systems, including Symbian, the leading smartphone OS on the market. The company has also considered using Linux from the LiMo Foundation.

While the rest of the mobile phone market is contracting amid the global recession, Huawei told Reuters it expects sales to grow. Chen said he believes the company will sell between 40 million and 45 million phones in 2009, compared with 33 million in 2008.

Chen also told the news service that Huawei is readying a phone for late this year or early next year that operates on the 4G wireless network technology LTE (Long Term Evolution).

Original article: Huawei to launch Android handsets from CNET News.com