DoCoMo & KTF Android Phone Coming 2009

The Nikkei business daily broke, Reuters reported and Phandroid is further relaying that DoCoMo – Japan’s largest mobile carrier – is jointly creating an Android based handset for release in 2009. They’re teaming up with manufacturer KTF, a company of which they have 10% ownership.

Details on the potential/possible/probable handset are sparse… or perhaps non-existent would be a better way of putting it. The two companies have combined forces to keep down costs and have done so on at least 2 occassions. They say the use of the Android OS will save them an additional 20% – savings they will pass on to consumers. Nice!

The phone would be made available in both Japan and South Korea at some unnamed date in 2009. DoCoMo is a member of the Open Handset Alliance so this would make perfect sense, however the Reuters article warned: A DoCoMo spokesman said the company had not yet decided to launch an Android-based phone next year.

But if you ask me, thats just PR talk for, “leave us alone until we’re ready to officially leak information to bloggers.”

[Via Reuters]