Google used its annual I/O Developer Conference in San Francisco yesterday to unveil new updates to its Android platform, a new acquisition, an alliance with Sony and the launch of Google TV. On the mobile side, Google announced Android 2.2 (codenamed Froyo) that includes WiFi hotspot functionality, support for Adobe Flash within the Android browser, and what it says are “improvements” to the Android Market application store. Developers can download the Android 2.2 SDK and Android NDK, Revision 4 now from the Android developer site. Froyo will be made available to OEMs and the open source community in the “coming weeks.” In addition, Vic Gundotra, VP of engineering, revealed that Google had acquired Simplify Media, a start-up that makes software to stream music between different devices and from the Web. Google plans to begin selling music through a future Web-based version of the Android Market and to enable Android users to stream music on their computers to their Android phones, essentially taking aim at Apple’s iTunes store. Meanwhile the company also talked up the growth of “the Android ecosystem.” Andy Rubin, VP, engineering, said: “Every day, 100,000 new people start using Android-based handsets. There are now more than 180,000 active Android developers who have contributed over 50,000 apps to the Android Market. Froyo is another step toward making Android an even better platform for developers, enterprises and consumers.” Google has also entered into a deal with Japanese consumer electronics giant Sony that will see the Internet giant’s Android operating system incorporated into new Sony products. 

First steps will see Sony introduce “Sony Internet TV” this autumn in the US (featuring both a standalone TV model and set top box-type unit incorporating a Blu-ray Disc drive), claimed to be the world’s first TV to incorporate the “Google TV” platform, also announced yesterday.  Google’s widely anticipated Google TV service is a blending of television programming and Internet content that marks another attempt to expand into larger advertising markets. “We’ve been waiting a long, long time for today,” chief executive Eric Schmidt said during the developer conference, while noting that many attempts at integrating Internet and TV content have been made by others over the years. As well as Sony, other partners in the initiative include US pay TV provider Dish Network, Intel and Logitech. Google TV is based on the Android platform and runs the Google Chrome web browser. Google’s latest moves come as analyst firm Ovum this week described the company as “a greater long-term threat to telecommunications firms and the broader telecoms ecosystem than any other company of its kind.”