Upcoming handset vendor INQ Mobile – owned by Hutchison Whampoa – has joined the growing list of vendors supporting Google’s Android platform. The company, known for its mostly low-end social networking-based handsets, has said it will release phones from next year running the Android platform. “We’ll do some pretty cool things with Android,” mocoNews cites INQ Mobile’s CEO Frank Meehan as stating. Meehan added though that Android has its challenges: “Currently Android phones on networks that are selling against the iPhone have not performed well. You need to get the experience better.”

Samsung, HTC and Huawei have already unveiled handsets based on the Android platform, and Motorola yesterday released details of its first Android-based device (see lead story). In fact, Nokia is the only handset manufacturer not expected to support the platform. The hugely-hyped Google-backed OS has a long way to go though before it can take market share from rivals. According to Gartner, Symbian held a 51 percent share of the smartphone OS market in 2Q09, while RIM and Apple grew their shares year-on-year. Android’s share was just under 2 percent of the market.