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G comes before I, but today's Wall Street Journal reports that the much-awaited "gPhone" won't come in time to challenge Apple's iPhone 3G. Handsets using Google's open-source Android mobile software platform, originally promised for the second half of this year, won't show up until the fourth quarter -- and while that's the target date for T-Mobile USA's Android phone, others from Sprint Nextel and China Mobile are unlikely to ship until 2009.

Mobile software developers are said to be grappling with Android's still-a-work-in-progress status while trying to develop applications and services other than the built-in features Google will offer. Meanwhile, the Journal's Jessica E. Vascellaro and Amol Sharma report, Samsung and other smartphone makers are running late in integrating and testing Android on their hardware. One source at Sprint hints that the carrier may scrap plans to offer a 3G gPhone in favor of one configured for its faster, future 4G network.

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