While HTC has yet to confirm a forthcoming Android netbook, the company was behind the launch of the G1 and has dabbled in netbook-style devices in the past. HTC has quickly become a top smartphone manufacturer, but can it duplicate that success in the netbook market?

Taiwan-based HTC is the dominant manufacturer of smartphones running both Google Android and the Windows Mobile operating systems. T-Mobile sold branded HTC phones as both the pivotal MDA and G1 devices.

However,  HTC has yet to prove its capabilities outside of the smartphone market. Netbooks have become quite a hot commodity in the past year and the Android OS is still unproven for applications broader than mobile phones.

HTC would be competing with a number of other manufacturers already working to release netbooks running Android. While there is only one Android netbook on the market today, that could change rapidly in the second half of the year.

Skytone was the first company to release a fully functional Android netbook last month. However the Skytone Alpha 680 looks more like a toy than a serious cutting edge netbook.

Also rumored to be working on a low-cost Android netbook is industry heavyweight Asustek. Asus’ Eee PC line of netbooks is known for delivering affordable netbook devices to the masses.

Chip manufacturer Freescale has also caught Android fever. Freescale is working on an Android netbook at a $199 price point to be released at some point this summer.

Possibly the sleekest looking netbooks expected to run Android are from Avaretec. CEO Tae-Hyun Cho won’t confirm that the devices will run Android, but calls the surprise operating system, “a merger of cell phone and PC technology.”

With all these companies spending big bucks to launch netbooks running the Android operating system, only one question remains. Is Android robust enough to eclipse both Windows and Linux as a desktop OS?

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Entry was posted on Wednesday, May 6th, 2009 at 10:20 am under Cell phones, Notebook, Open source, Technology.

Read more entries by Dave Jeyes.
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