Google announces Android developer group

Google and 33 other companies have announced their commitment to a development alliance that could bring any web application to mobile devices.

Called the Open Handset alliance, the group includes mobile phone manufacturers, chip companies and software developers.

Although Google said that it would be working with a number of mobile manufacturers, no Google phone was officially announced. Sergey Brin, however, did say, "If there was a Gphone, then Android would be an excellent platform for it to use". Currently the firm is working with four mobile manufacturers - Samsung, HTC, Motorola and LG.

The basis of the announcement was the Android software stack. Introducing it, Eric Schmidt, Google's chief executive and chairman, said, "There are three billion mobile devices being used, giving people access to information is key to us, and mobile platforms have to be part of that. We want to create a whole new mobile experience with Android, a fully integrated mobile software stack with a user interface, applications, middleware and an operating system."

Android will be offered through an Apache open-source licensing program and a software development kit will be released next week. Both HTC and Motorola have promised devices built on the software stack for the latter half of next year.

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