T-Mobile USA has hinted that it is working on “a new approach” that will see an increasing number of its handsets adopt open source mobile platforms. Speaking at the Wireless Innovations conference in California this week, T-Mobile’s general manager of new business development, Joe Sims, said that the operator will open up its device platforms to developers via open software development kits and applications programming interfaces, reports EE Times. T-Mobile has been a high-profile supporter of Android – the open source mobile platform developed by Google and announced earlier this year – and expects to be one of the first US operators to ship a device running the platform later this year. Sims declined to reveal what other open source platforms T-Mobile was looking at, according to the report. He added that the strategy was aimed at reducing the time it took to develop new applications, which he said can take as long as 3 to 9 months to reach handsets.

Meanwhile, silicon vendor Qualcomm said at the show it was working with its handset OEM partners on more than five Android-based handsets that are scheduled to ship in the next 12 to 18 months. According to Sayeed Choudhury, a product manager for systems software at Qualcomm’s chip division, the Android handsets will have similar features to the iPhone but will be available at mass market prices and offer better internet multimedia functionality. Qualcomm also supports its own Brew environment, Microsoft’s Windows Mobile and the LiMo Foundations’ Linux platform.