Android delayed, HTC Doubting the Almighty Google?

"The word from Half Moon bay is that Google’s 'GPhone' cell-phones, being built by various handset makers, could be delayed from an end-of-year introduction to sometime later in the first quarter of next year, according to Trip Chowdhry of Global Equities Research. Among the issues causing the apparent delay are the following: Handset maker High Tech Computer (HTCKF) is 'having structural problems to incorporate Google’s demanded feature set'; HTC is 'demanding a guaranteed minimum revenue surety from Google', from which Chowdhry concludes that 'Probably HTC does not think there will be enough demand for GPhone.'"

When Google's operating system was first announced I was incredibly excited. The more competition there is, the better the products get for us consumers over time. Though after taking some time to play with Google's Developer kit every few months since it was released, I became less and less impressed with it over time. Sure it does some cool things but just like Google's Internet presence, Google's operating system feels like bits and chunks services thrown together into a big pile of Beta. This might work for the web but I cannot see this working for the average consumer. It seems as though the Powers That Be at HTC are starting to have their doubts about Google's operating system as well, but their doubts come from a different problem that I never even thought about; will there really be that much of a demand for a Google phone? What do you guys think?