While rumours on the second Android-based HTC phones begin to surface, Economic Daily News newspaper's sources have disclosed that the manufacturer is already working on its third Android-based mobile phone.

HTC CEO Peter Chou has said that he expects that G1 device sales to surpass 1 million units in 2008, according to EDN, which led to analysts at Taiwanese security houses to state that the Android-series will a growth catalyst for HTC. This could potentially lead to HTC dropping Windows Mobile in the near-future, unless Microsoft does not change its offering strategy. It is unlikely that the Taiwanese manufacturer drops Microsoft before the first quarter of 2009, as an HTC representative was quoted saying that the company expects to launch a Windows Mobile 7-based phone in that timeframe.

Current rumours suggest that the second Android-based phone will feature a touchscreen-only form factor, 5 megapixel camera, 3G video calls, and Wi-Fi, among other components. The expected release data is the 26th of January, 2009.

[via DigiTimes]