A mobile phone running on the newly released Android open platform from Google might be out on the market sooner than expected. The device will come from HTC, will pack some innovative features and has been codenamed "Dream".

Unfortunately, rumors state that the device resembles the iPhone. We've had one too many mobile phones trying to copy Apple's handset, so this comes more as a turn-off. It is said to be 3 inches wide and 5 inches long and to feature a rectangular touchscreen. The interesting side only begins, as the display is also time-sensitive. The user can expand an area by holding his thumb on it for a long period of time.

The HTC Dream's screen swivels to one side, revealing a full QWERTY keypad beneath. This should be extremely efficient for typing long text messages and having a horizontal display when the keypad is used. This makes the handset great for editing text messages, emails and watching videos, just like some of the most evolved smartphones out there can handle.

Another interesting feature about the HTC Dream is that once the user launches an application, this resides in the background, making it easy to use later on without having to wait for another loading. Moreover, the device will run on the newly unveiled Android platform, which should make it open to any software coming from developers. Moreover, this handset comes as a result of the close work between HTC and Google in the Open Handset Alliance for bringing out an evolved operating system for mobiles.

HTC looks to bring out the Dream phone in the early half of year 2008, which also matches the time when the Android open platform will be out for the public to enjoy. As far as we know, this might even end up being the first mobile phone to run Google's new operating system, making the launch even more spectacular.