Phone makers line up in support of Android

Manufacturers reveal when first compatible models will appear

Qualcomm shows off Android - our pics from the stand

13 February 2008 13:00 GMT / By Katie Scott

The unveiling of Google's Android mobile phone operating system has caused one big buzz.

And now execs at an array of mobile phone manufacturing companies have announced details of when they will bring the system to their customers.

So far, Reuters is reporting that LG is promising to start selling a phone model running on Android at the start of next year at the latest.

"We will bring it out late in 2008 or early 2009", Chang Ma, LG's vice president for marketing strategy told Reuters in an interview at the Mobile World Congress trade show.

LG is part of a group of about 30 companies that said they would support Google's operating system, which is based on the Linux open-source software platform.

Service provider Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile and Taiwanese phone maker High Tech Computer have both said they plan to sell phones based on Android this year, adds Reuters.

T-Mobile also used the event in Barcelona to hint at its intentions for the system.

Its chief executive, Hamid Akhavan, told journalists that T-Mobile plans to launch a device operating on Android in the Q4 of this year.

"Early results we have seen have given us all the confidence that it will be groundbreaking", Akhavan said.