The DigiTimes has it (via all-knowing “market sources”) that Samsung will launch its own an Android-powered handset as early as the third quarter of 2009:

Based on information leaked from Samsung, the company’s first Android handset will be similar to HTC’s forthcoming HTC Magic handset in design and hardware specifications, and both models will be built with 3.5G chipset solutions from Qualcomm, the sources noted.

This should come as no real shocker since we learned earlier last month that this highly anticipated first “Samdroid” was being delayed.

All that really matters in the end is that Samsung puts out a solid, ‘droid-rockin’ piece of hardware sometime in the near future. And that goes for all the rest of you manufacturers, too. Get to it!