Reuters is reporting that British handheld chip manufacturer ARM will be demonstrating a prototype of a phone running Android this Monday. Many news sources have reported that they have been contacted by ARM to participate in the private demo. It is not clear whether the ARM demo will include parts/phones from other suppliers, or what the demo will reveal.

The progress is good news for developers, and for Google who expects handhelds running Android to be released in the second quarter of 2008. As more progress is made, we draw nearer to the Android Developer Challenge deadline of April 14th. The progress is encouraging for Android developers who look forward to releasing their apps and capturing part of the Android market, which has recently been estimated to start at 2% by Strategy Analytics.

With the iPhone set to release their SDK this month, Android faces an initial setback. While their SDK has been first to market, allowing developers to pre-develop their applications, Apple will allow developers to get their applications live first, and many developers may choose to support iPhone apps over Android apps, at least initially. This is similar to Facebook launching their app platform first, and other social networks struggling to attract developers with unique applications. What platform will you be developing for in March?

Source: ARM Google phone platform demo Monday: source [reuters.com]