Verizon Said To Be A No-Show At Motorola's Android EventVerizon Said To Be A No-Show At Motorola's Android Event

On September 10, during a keynote address at the GigaOm conference in San Francisco, Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha is expected to announce the company's first Android device(s). A Verizon representative has said that Verizon won't be attending and doesn't know what's being announced. This begs the question, which carrier is going to sell the to-be-announced device(s)?The Motorola Sholes was widely expected to be announced at next week's event. The Sholes, which boasts a QWERTY keyboard, touch screen and 5 megapixel camera, is said to be going on sale via Verizon Wireless later this year. Or is it?

According to TheStreet.com, an unnamed Verizon representative has confirmed that the nation's largest wireless provider won't be party to Motorola's announcement next week, and, in fact, doesn't know what's being announced at all. Motorola, however, contends that a carrier partner will be part of next week's event. This is a bit of a head scratcher.

So if the Sholes isn't on deck, then what is? Evidence pointing to Motorola Android devices has been spotted regularly across the Internet for months now. Considering what we've heard about AT&T's reaction to Motorola's Android handsets, it is likely that AT&T isn't going to be involved. That leaves T-Mobile and Sprint.

We already know that the HTC Hero is being prepped for release on Sprint at some point in the fourth quarter. Would Sprint launch two competing Android handsets in the same quarter? Doubtful. Is T-Mobile really going to be involved and pick up the first Motorola Android handset? That would be T-Mo's third Android phone (behind the G1 and myTouch 3G), with no other carriers hopping onto the Android bandwagon yet. That doesn't feel right.

Motorola has pinned a big part of its future on Android. It needs for its Android devices to be successful. The importance of next week's announcement can't be understated. Has Motorola picked the right partners for this important launch? We'll find out on the 10th.