South Korea’s LG – the world’s third-largest handset vendor – has said that half of all of its new smartphones launched this year will be based on Google’s Android platform, reports the Yonhap News Agency in Seoul. Nam Yong, LG’s chief executive officer, made the comments at last week’s Consumer Electronics Show  (CES) in Las Vegas. LG’s support for the Google platform comes amid concerns that the vendor – a prominent backer of Microsoft’s rival Windows Mobile platform – is losing ground in the fast-growing smartphone market. “We will have smartphones running on Windows Mobile, but about 50 percent of our smartphone models will run on Android,” said Nam, adding that LG will also look to Google for content. “For now, Google’s content seems to be the only alternative.” The company has not disclosed how many smartphones it plans to launch this year.

LG joins a growing list of smartphone vendors that have adopted the Android platform as a driver for future growth. Most prominent among these is Motorola, which last week said its range of new Android smartphones may help its struggling handset unit return to profitability at some point this year. Motorola launched the Android-powered ‘Droid’ and ‘Cliq’ last quarter and has two other Android-powered smartphones in the Chinese market. It unveiled its fifth Android device – the Backflip – at the CES show last week. Nokia is the only major handset vendor to date not supporting Android.