After a year of New Zealand being almost totally left out of the Google phone action, suddenly it’s all Android, all of the time.

A recent survey by respected market tracker NPD put phones based on Google’s Android operating system ahead of Apple’s iPhone in the US. 

Telecom says it will launch its first Google Android handset, LG's GW620, for XT later this month, for $699 off contract.

The LG's hero feature is auto-face recognition, with promises to identify friends and automate the process of tagging a person's name to a pic, then uploading it to a social networking site.

Earlier this year, NBR relayed how Mrs Bill Gates had expressed her unrequited love for Apple’s handset.

And how Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer had to ban his kids from buying an iPod.

Can no-one resist Planet Apple's gravitational pull?

It seems not.

Korean electronics manufacturer Samsung has just launched the i7500 smartphone, making it the second phone manufacturer in the world to get a phone running Google’s Android OS to market.

Taiwan's HTC was the first to market with the G1 and Magic, and has just released the third and latest Android handset, the HTC Hero.

Now Samsung is the first of the top three mobile phone manufacturers to release an Android phone, and it appears to be packing the hardware to make Nokia and Apple very, very nervous.