Although twenty Android phones to be released in 2009 may sound like idle chatter, chances are it’s not, as it comes from someone who should know; Andy Rubin, Google’s Director of Mobile Platforms, currently speaking at the Google I/O conference taking place in San Francisco.  If we head to the shops today, we have can pick up just two Android handsets – the G1 and the Magic – so even if these are included in Mr. Rubin’s figures, it leaves us with 18 still to come from reportedly 8 or 9 different phone manufacturers!

Also discussed was the next upgrade to the Android operating system, codenamed Donut.  This new version will feature, logically, an overhauled search function which will work online as well as across your phone’s data, plus a gesture based system where a letter ‘drawn’ on screen will be sufficient to create a search list.

At the end of yesterday’s conference, Vic Gundotra, Google’s Vice President of Engineering surprised his audience by giving away an HTC Magic to each one of them!  Inside the special box was the phone, a SIM card with 30 days unlimited 3G access and talktime, plus the developers SDK!  To represent the current hard times, you can already find one on eBay.