The prototype handsets are attracting considerable attention at the giant Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona where they are being displayed by a number of companies including Texas Instruments, Qualcomm and chip maker ARM.

Google released Android, a competitor to Symbian and Windows Mobile, with great fanfare in November last year, making a software developer kit freely available. Now the race is on to get the first Android phones onto the market.

One of the more impressive prototypes is on display at the Texas Instruments stand at the show. It features a slick icon-based interface that gives easy access to Google’s suite of services. While staff are at pains to stress it is far from a finished product, it does provide an idea of how an Android-powered device might behave.

None of the vendors showing devices are prepared to nominate release dates, however the first phones are expected to hit the market during the second half of this year.

An open source operating system, Android is being promoted by the Open Handset Alliance which is busy selling its benefits to handset manufacturers. The chip companies are getting involved early because much of the promise of the software will depend on it being tied tightly to the underlying hardware.

Built on a Linux kernel, Android is particularly attractive for developers as it allows features to be tweaked and extended as required. The OHA expects that this will lead to a multitude of devices with feature sets aimed at very specific market segments.

At the show, Texas Instruments is displaying two Android prototypes. One is based on the company’s OMAP850 processor that also incorporates Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capabilities. The other is using the OMAP3430 chip which is capable of decoding high-definition television content.