Google has fired the starting gun in the race to produce what would undoubtedly be the most important mobile phone released this year.

The emergence of prototypes running the search giant's new operating system for mobiles has laid down the gauntlet for the likes of Motorola and Samsung to make a handset on which the internet really works.

At the Mobile World Conference yesterday crowds gathered around at least three prototypes of the “Google phone” and handset makers scrambled to line up component suppliers.

The first handsets to run Android, the Google operating system announced three months ago, are expected to go on sale in the second half of the year. Experts said that the first manufacturer of a “Gphone” would have a significant early mover advantage. Consumers increasingly want internet on the move and ever more mobile services, such as music and video downloads, will be web-based.

However, Nokia, the leading handset maker with 40 per cent of the market, and Apple, whose iPhone has won 20 per cent of smart-phone sales in America since its June launch, have not committed to the new platform. Google has not ruled out releasing an own-brand model.

Kazuyoshi Kuwahara, an engineer at NEC, which has made a chip that runs Android, said: “I expect you're ultimately going to see many devices, but one manufacturer will make it first and they will have a significant advantage because of the strong association with the Google name. It's a very attractive proposition to be bringing out the first Android phone.”

Andrew Gilbert, European president of Qualcomm, one of the world's largest providers of chips for mobiles, said: “Google obviously stands to benefit from a more web-friendly operating system for phones because they want to take the model they've developed [for the fixed internet] and perpetuate it in the mobile environment.”

Google found that iPhone owners were 50 times more likely to access the internet on their phone than those who had other devices.

Vic Gundotra, head of Google's mobile strategy, said: “The phantom walking the corridors here is definitely Steve Jobs [Apple chief executive]. As the bar is raised for mobile web browsers, more people will be using the internet on their phones and that will be good for everybody.”

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