India may figure among the 18 select countries where technology giant Google would launch

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its upcoming smartphone Galaxy Nexus, widely being billed as an iPhone- killer, in its first phase later this month.

Google aims to make available this device, which would rival technology major Apple's smartphone iPhone, later this month in the US, Canada, and select European and Asian countries.

To start with, Google has launched specific web pages for India and 17 other countries, where prospective customers can register for getting further updates about the various features and availability status of Galaxy Nexus.

Apart from India, other countries which will receive the upcoming smartphone in the first phase are--- Australia, Brazil, France, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Portugal, the US, the UK, Taiwan, Thailand and Netherlands.

Galaxy Nexus would be based on the latest version of Google's flagship Android mobile operating system, named Android Ice Cream Sandwich.

The device would have features like 1.2 GHz dual core processor, 4.65 inch HD display and the facility of fourth generation telephony services.

"With Ice Cream Sandwich, our mission was to build a mobile OS that works on both phones and tablets, and to make the power of Android enticing and intuitive," Google had said.