I love my G1, but I'm tired of dealing with its hobbled and derelict 528 MHz processor. Speed is the main thing holding all of the current Android handsets back, but not for very long. Snapdragon, Qualcomm's upcoming 1.0-1.5 GHz mobile platform, is coming very soon. In fact, we should see the first Snapdragon Android phone hit this fall.

The question is, whose phone will it be? According to a Reuters interview with Andy Rubin, Google's Director of Mobile Platforms, we should see 15-20 new Android devices launch this year. Android and Me says that 15 manufacturers are working on thirty different Snapdragon devices. There's a good chance that most of those new devices will run on Android.

Android has finally started to establish itself as a major smartphone OS over the last few months, and now it's time for manufacturers to step up the game. As it currently stands, Android smartphones are locked firmly in second-tier positions in the market.

That's all going to change when the first Android mobiles with Snapdragon inside them hit stores later this year. Google will roll out Android 1.6 and Android 2.0 to bring things like 3D gaming and an enhanced UI to Android as well. With a newly-buffed OS and a lightning-fast processor, this next generation of Android phones could be the first generation of smartphones to truly qualify as 'pocket' computers.