Marketing Pilgrim

The WSJ is reporting Google’s Android–aka Gphone–is likely to miss its target launch date and instead will not be ready until the fourth quarter.

It’s tough enough developing an entirely new mobile platform, but when you rely on others to actually build the thing, you have one big headache on your hands.

…some cellular carriers and makers of programs that work with Android are struggling to meet that schedule, people familiar with the situation say.

T-Mobile USA expects to deliver an Android-powered phone in the fourth period. But that launch is taking up so much of Google’s attention and resources that Sprint Nextel Corp., which had hoped to launch an Android phone this year, won’t be able to, a person familiar with the matter said.

In the meantime, Apple is roaring ahead with a its iPhone 3G–helped by the fact that Apple built the platform AND the actual phone.

If Apple can announce video conferencing/streaming capabilities, before Android come to market, it could be too little, too late for Google.

Will the race be over by the time Google steps up to the starting blocks?