The Open Handset Alliance, a group of more than 30 technology and mobile companies, developed Android: the first complete, open, and free mobile platform.

As far as market shares goes, Android OS ranks at #2 after iPhone at #1 and BlackBerry at #3

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[1] Wikipedia

High Tech Computer (HTC) unveiled its second Google Android-based smartphone, the HTC Magic, with mobile service provider Vodafone on Tuesday.

Specification:

The Dream is a quad-band touch-screen GSM 3G phone fitted with WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS capabilities, a 3-megapixel camera and a single USB port but no 3.5 millimetre headphone jack.

A microSD card of up to 8gigabytes can be fitted. Software includes a web browser based on Google’s Chrome application.

Bundled features include access to YouTube, Google Maps, including Street View, a music player, instant messaging and email.

HTC Dream in Picture

A full-fledged version of the Adobe Flash player is coming soon to a whole slew of smartphones. Unfortunately, Apple’s iPhone isn’t one of them.

Adobe announced at the GSMA Mobile World Congress here Monday that Flash Player 10, which is the full version of Flash that runs on PCs, will be available on smartphones running Windows Mobile, Google’s Android, Nokia S60/Symbian, and the new Palm operating systems. Devices with Flash Player 10 are expected to hit the market starting in early 2010.

The company has worked for years on a lightweight incarnation of its Flash technology for mobile phones. Adobe executives said that about 40 percent of all phones that are shipped today use this version of its technology. But because Flash Lite doesn’t allow for the same functionality as what’s available on the Flash 10 desktop version of the technology, mobile users are missing out.

Palm Pre too.

The Palm Pre A touchscreen phone with a full QWERTY keyboard.

First of all, the specs are impressive: a large multi-touch screen, powerful processor, accelerometer, hidden QWERTY keyboard, multitasking, GPS, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, and 3.2 megapixel camera… it offers real innovation. From a new app and tasks management metaphor known as “Cards” to the gesture area, this is a smart phone that’s breaking new ground.

Pre will give me what the iPhone and Bold (the former leader in my smartphone lust affections) can not: a full-sized touch screen and a QWERTY keyboard. The combination of touch screen and QWERTY keyboard is one of the reasons I fell in love with my Treo 700p. That thing is old, dust filled and hoary now, but once it was my beloved.

Like my old Treo, the Pre will be exclusive – at least initially – on the Sprint platform early in 2009. (There is no pricing info yet). For some, this is a downer, but Sprint has become a much better and more reliable service over the years and I have no complaints about the EVDO Rev A 3G service.

Palm Pre Smartphone