Google Android’s group gained 14 new members this week, including Vodafone, the world’s largest mobile operator. The group is called the Open Handset Alliance, which promotes the use of the Android mobile operating system. The 14 new members are AKM Semiconductor, ARM, ASUSTek Computer, Atheros Communications, Borqs, Ericsson, Garmin International, Huawei Technologies, Omron Software, Softbank Mobile, Sony Ericsson, Teleca, and Toshiba. They are now expected to deploy compatible Android devices, therefore contributing significant code to the Android Open Source Project. As an option, the members can support the group through products and services which will accelerate the availability of Android-based devices.

The Open Handset Alliance was started a year ago, when Google officially unveiled its plans for a smartphone, the Android G1, with its OS. The Android software is designed to provide handset makers and wireless operators an open platform on which they can develop new and innovative applications. The purpose of the alliance is to support the creation of these apps, which results in richer features that are less expensive to develop and ship. The alliance now totals 47 members. Among them, we can find tech companies and cell phone companies like HTC, LG, Motorola, T-Mobile or Sprint Nextel. Unfortunately for Google, AT&T and Verizon Wireless are not members of the Open Handset Alliance.

Adding 14 new members to the alliance should help boost Android's presence in the mobile market, but the OS has a long way ahead in terms of gaining significant market share. For now, Nokia's Symbian operating system dominates the global market. Furthermore, Apple's iPhone and RIM's Blackberry operating systems are becoming tough competitors in the smartphone market, so Google will really have to do its best.

An interesting fact shows that Austek and Toshiba are in the new members list. That only confirms the fact that Google's OS will be used in netbooks too, which are tiny laptops with screens of less than 10.2 inches. Austek is the largest player in the netbooks category and it seems that Android-based netbooks may be coming out soon. The fact that Google's alliance has grown suggests that the sales for G1 are going very well, even if the phone was available only since this fall. More handsets are expected to come on the market from a variety of handset makers in 2009, like Ericsson or Motorola. They want in on the action now, and that's because the cost of making an Android-based handset is lower than that of making a phone with an OS from Nokia or Microsoft.