Vodafone and Sony Ericsson are among 14 companies to have announced membership of the Open Handset Alliance this week, a consortium supporting Google’s Android open-source mobile operating platform. “Joining the Open Handset Alliance is a logical step in our mobile Internet journey,” Frank H Rovekamp, global chief marketing officer for Vodafone Group, the world’s largest mobile operator by revenue, said in a statement. “Working with emerging terminal platforms for smartphones is critical for us to deliver unbeatable customer experiences and accelerate time to market for innovative products and services.” Meanwhile, Sony Ericsson – the world’s third-largest handset vendor according to recent Gartner statistics – in a statement confirmed “its intention to develop a handset based on the Android platform,” adding that the company “is a strong supporter of open operating systems.” Sony Ericsson currently offers handsets using rival Symbian and Windows Mobile platforms. Other new member companies include AKM Semiconductor, ARM, ASUSTek, Atheros, Borqs, Ericsson, Garmin International, Huawei, Omron Software, Softbank Mobile, Teleca and Toshiba. Chinese manufacturer Huawei stated it is “committed to deploy Android devices toward 2009.”

Existing high-profile operators in the alliance include China Mobile, KDDI, NTT DoCoMo, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile, Telefonica and Telecom Italia, whilst vendors include HTC, LG Electronics, Motorola, Samsung, Broadcom and Qualcomm. To date only one handset is commercially available that uses the Android platform – HTC’s G1 offered by T-Mobile in Europe and the US – but next year looks likely to see a raft of handset manufacturers launching new offerings. Reports earlier this month suggested small Australian electronics company Kogan Technologies is set to be the world’s second handset manufacturer to launch a mobile device based on Android. The Agora touchscreen handset will reportedly ship next year.