Soon the T-Mobile G1, probably better known as the Google Android HTC Dream will be hitting the stores, and with a tremendous amount of net coverage as reviewers get their hands on it to give it the once over.

So why get excited about Android? Android’s true target isn’t the 19% of mobile phones running OS’s like Mac OS, Windows Mobile or even BlackBerry. Android’s target is the other 81% that run obscure OS’s such as P2K and Nucleus.

Many feature phone manufacturers are looking for a new OS; many look to Linux manly because of its stability. Google wants Android to become the standard for manufacturers who don’t wish to roll their own.

This is why Google let manufacturers customise or lock down Android, the HTC Dream isn’t a real world beater, the real question for the future is what the likes of Samsung and LG will do with Android when they debut it in 2009, which of course will be Google’s big opportunity.

Source — pcmag