It appears that Chinese cell phone manufacturer Huawei, a member of the Open Handset Alliance, will have its first Android powered smartphone on the market in the first half of 2009.  A Huawei representative said that his company will manufacturer Android handsets that will then be private labeled by other companies, much in that in the past HTC has built devices like the Windows Mobile powered Shadow for T-Mobile to sell under its own brand.

Huawei currently manufacturers private label cell phones like this for MetroPCS in the USA.

Huawei says that its skills in software will allow it to make the most of open source platforms like Android and provide carriers with highly customized handsets.

[via PCWorld]