Sony Ericsson's chief executive Hideki Komiyama has recently stated that the company intends to take its time with the development of an Android-based mobile phone, yet it seems that it won't be that long before such a handset will come to the market, as recent reports state that the joint venture will release it before the end of the ongoing year.

Moreover, it seems that said Sony Ericsson Android-powered mobile phone will be launched on the market by the wireless carrier Orange, as the two companies have inked a deal for the release of the device “in time for the 2009 year-end holiday season.”

The news site DigiTimes, citing the Chinese-language Commercial Times paper, has it that Sony Ericsson also plans to outsource production of the handset that will come with Google's Android operating system to Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry), though the company hasn't said anything on a possible release date of the phone.

As many of you might already know, Foxconn is the company that also takes care of the manufacturing of Apple’s iPhone, and was reported not long ago to have been contracted by Nokia for the making of some netbooks that will bear the Finnish mobile phone maker's logo.

At the same time, we should also note that, in case Sony Ericsson makes an Android phone especially for it, Orange would become the fourth carrier to have its own such device, following T-Mobile, which launched the first Google phone, G1 (HTC Dream), last year, Vodafone, which will soon release the second Android device, the HTC Magic, and China Mobile, which will also release its own handset based on the platform, the Ophone, in May.

There are no further details on Sony Ericsson and Orange's plans in the area, nor on the mobile phone expected to come from them, yet more info might surface in the near future, so stay tuned to learn the news.