Motorola follows the path opened by Apple and Google with plans of creating its own smartphone just days before T-Mobile is officially launching the G1 Android. Motorola’s phones will probably be based on the open-source Linux operating system and the company will begin producing them in late 2009.

People say that Motorola’s engineers are working on an Android handset geared toward users of social networking, like MySpace and Facebook. Basically, the cell phone will let users update and manager their social networking sites from the device. The Android will probably have a touch screen similar to the Apple iPhone, T-Mobile G1 or the recently announced BlackBerry Storm from RIM (Research in Motion).

Furthermore, Motorola’s phone will have a G1-style physical slide-out QWERTY keyboard. The product is expected to be released on the market in the second quarter of 2009. As a prelude, Motorola released last week its first-ever touch-screen phone, the Motorola Krave, which launched on October the 14th on Verizon Wireless. To try and compete with Apple and Google in the domain of smartphones, Motorola is putting $50 million into its Android project and is recruiting as many as 350 people to work on the phones. As for the price, Motorola’s phone will probably be cheaper than the G1’s $180 price.

In order to allow users to enter social networks, Motorola’s Android will import your friends’ list from Facebook or MySpace directly into the phone’s address book. Apple’s iPhone already offers you this option, but on the new smartphone, you wouldn’t necessarily need to launch a separate application. The phone hasn’t got a name yet, but the release could help the company on its comeback trail in the smartphone market.