Word on the street is HTC may be developing a netbook-type device for T-Mobile that’ll run the Android operating system. This is all per “an anonymous tipster” over at TmoToday.com, so take it all with a grain of salt.

It would make a fair amount of sense for HTC to be developing such a device. It was the first company to produce an Android phone, it has experience designing computers (the HTC Shift, for example), and its relationship with T-Mobile goes back a while.

I’d hope that HTC would design something that breaks the current netbook mold, not just another 10-inch low-resolution screen with an Atom CPU and all the same fluff we’ve been seeing for the past year. Something akin to the Shift but far more portable and with day-long battery life would be a welcome addition to the market.

The supposed tip says that whatever HTC is (or isn’t) working on may be available by the end of the year. My bet is on a Snapdragon-like device with a (hopefully) usable keyboard.

T-Mobile Android Netbook on the horizon [TmoToday via AndroidGuys]