Taiwanese handset maker HTC is expected to ship about 50,000 cell phones by the end of this year that use a mobile operating system from Google, according to a Fortune article that cites a report from a UBS analyst.

The phones won't be for sale until next year; the initial shipment will go to developers, says analyst Benjamin Schachter. Google is likely talking to other handset manufacturers, he says.

Google has declined to comment on rumors of its phone plans. Google is hosting an analyst day on October 24, and Schachter expects the company to talk about its phone strategy then.

The Google phone rumor is starting to really take shape. Information gathered from Digitimes, GigaOm, CrunchGear, and more, hints at Google perhaps closely working with Taiwanese handset manufacturer HTC to produce a phone with a Google-approved OS. This dovetails nicely with the overall sentiment that Google wouldn't actually develop its own hardware, but would instead work with a third-party manufacturer and then supply its own OS and applications. The OS, according to GigaOm, would be based on a mobile variant of Linux, and will support Java apps. There will supposedly be a search browser with pan-and-browse features similar to the one on the iPhone. Digitimes even goes so far as to confirm the existence of the phone, citing interviews with Taiwanese handset makers, but details on the OS and its features still remain hazy. Speculations abound that the mythical phone will support all of Google's applications, like Google Maps, GMail, and even Google Docs. There's no way for us to confirm these rumors right now.