With the release of Palm’s latest toy, the Pre, and the increasing interest in the Android operating system, the iPhone is facing a ton of competition through 2009.� And now the world’s largest wireless carrier, China Mobile, has announced that they are getting set to release a 3G handset of their own that will take on all the competition – introducing the “OPhone”.

Although it does sound like a cheap knock off of the iPhone (after all they have just replaced one letter) China Mobile is hoping that the public might see it as a totally different smart phone.� For a start the handset is the first in China that has adopted Google’s Android operating system and is said to utilise China’s very own 3G network.

The handset is being prepared for a first quarter release in 2009 and according to a source from China Mobile, “The product is in the final testing stage at the moment.”

According to what little information China Mobile has released on the apparently latest iPhone killer, the handset will boast a 5 megapixel camera which will be supported with a flash and auto-focus.� The handset also supports a microSD card slot as well as Bluetooth 2.0.

Lenovo is being touted as the creator of the handset and is said to be working in conjunction with China Mobile.� Mobile game developers are clearly chuffed to be hearing the news that Android has made its way into the far east and they can finally start pushing their developments to a whole new market all over again.� Even better news for the developers is that rumours are circling the web-waves that the Android system is being planned to be adopted by other eastern countries such as Japan and South Korea, however, they shouldn’t be getting too excited because nothing is certain as of yet.

The OPhone is already being hailed as an obvious success as Google’s Android operating system has brought about attention from smart phone lovers and people have been eager to get their hands on the handset.� However, nothing is certain in the mobile handset world.

China Mobile has recently acquired a licence to create TD-SCDMA networks only last week in fact.� This has taken so long because Beijing took their time awarding 3G licences.

It will be interesting to see the OPhone’s impact on the Smartphone market, particularly its impact on the iPhone, who already has a firm hold on the Smartphone market around the world.� However, Google’s Android operating system has been met with favourable reviews since its release, despite quite a lot of software upsets in the first months of its life.� Still Android has now found its feet and is off to a promising career in the Smartphone market.

The AppStore has also brought a lot of success to the iPhone over the recent few months, but now Android has also released their version of the AppStore, called the AppMarket - the battle simply rages on.�