By Richard Waters

When the first of Google’s long-anticipated Android mobile phones hit the stores in a matter of weeks, they will land with a fizzle rather than a bang.

That is the overwhelming verdict of internet developers and mobile industry executives who have closely followed Google’s progress and, in some cases, worked with early versions.

The first phones based on Android are to be launched next month by T-Mobile, which is pushing on with plans to launch a number of handsets from Taiwanese manufacturer HTC next month, according to one person with knowledge of its plans.

Coming hot on the heels of Apple’s latest iPhone, the Google Android handsets are among the most anticipated new electronic gadgets of 2008. They will be made by different electronics companies and based on an open-source software platform known as Android that Google designed from the ground up to support internet applications.

For Google, comparisons with Apple are turning out to be both inevitable and damning. If the iPhone has been a text-book case of how to develop and market a new consumer electronics product, Android is the opposite, according to industry experts. “It ain’t no iPhone,” said John Jackson, an analyst at Yankee Group, echoing a widely held view.

Disparagement of Android has touched on everything from an alleged lack of sophistication and stability in the software, to the fact that successful devices such as the iPhone and the BlackBerry are based on a different technology model. “The best experiences out there today are ‘vertical’ experiences, where the hardware and software come from the same company,” said Tom Conrad, chief technology officer of Pandora, whose internet music service is one of the most popular applications on the iPhone.

More important, according to some critics, has been Google’s lack of clear consumer focus, in marked contrast to Apple, whose iPhone was designed and marketed to meet very specific needs.

Critics asked why consumers would buy the phone when there was no “killer app” to set it apart, in the way Apple’s iTunes service helped to sell iPhones. “If I was a customer I would say ‘I get Google on my iPhone or my Nokia N95, why do I need this?’” said Frank Meehan, head of the handset and application arm at Hutchison Whampoa. T-Mobile did not return calls for comment.