While today's industry-shaking announcement regarding the 34-company Android Alliance means good news for those who are disappointed with the current state of the cell phone industry in the US, surely plenty of folks were saddened, as the much-rumored Google Phone continued to be the stuff of fantasy.

But Engadget--by way of Forbes--is claiming that all may not be lost for those clamoring to get their hands on a Google-branded handset: the HTC "Dream" may well be the device we've been waiting for. Google asked the company to build five prototypes to demonstrate its Android initiative.

Says Engadget:

The device itself, which measures about 3 by 5 inches, sports a touchscreen, navigational controls at the base, and a full swivel out keyboard. When swiveled the screen goes from portrait to landscape mode, but unfortunately that's the limit of info on the actual hardware. The software apparently has "time-sensitive" touch controls that expands your area control the longer you touch. Icons for your most important apps--which are apparently email, text documents, and YouTube--are lined up across the top of the screen. There's also some fancy stuff under the hood to keep an ongoing browser session open to speed launch times, and the browser downloads large files in stages to speed delivery.

The dream may be coming true as early as the second half of next year.