Last week a posting advertising a position on Motorola’s Android team kicked off rumors that the company was looking to develop an Android-based smartphone designed specifically for social networking. Now it looks as though those rumors may not only be true but that the cell phone manufacturer’s first smartphone running the Google-developed mobile operating system may not hit the market until the end of next year.

Shortly after HTC announced the first Android Smartphone, the G1, Motorola confirmed reports that it too would be releasing a smartphone based on Android. While there were similar rumors about rival manufacturer Nokia, no official word came from the Finnish company, so many assumed the next horse out the gate would be from Motorola. However, it now looks like someone else could beat the company to it.

BusinessWeek reports that Motorola won’t launch its social smartphone in the U.S. until Q2 2009, and even later in European markets. Leaving aside the corner the company is backing itself into in developing a smartphone targeted at a specific market, three or four other companies could bring out an Android-based OS between now and the end of next year. Once a new product hits the market, there’s always a barrage of “me too” products from competitors.

We’ve said before that HTC stands to make a mint on being the first company with an Android device on the market. Any subsequent manufacturers may be disappointed when they compare their sales to the amount of handsets HTC expects to shift. With 1.5 million handsets pre-ordered before Wednesday’s launch, early adopters have already made the G1 a success, however the same may not be true for other manufacturers.

That said, there’s still an enormous amount to be said for being second to across the finish line. The company who comes up with an attractive design and offers consumers a decent alternative to the G1 will probably be just as popular. By delaying the schedule of an Android device far into next year, Motorola could be losing the head start it gained from the press coverage over the last few weeks.