Android Making Impressive Mobile Inroads

Sales of Android-based smartphones overtook Apple iPhone sales during the first quarter, and Android now holds the number two spot in mobile OS market share, NPD Group said in a report earlier this week. And once Google's Android Marketplace gets some momentum, the Android ecosystem could get a whole lot bigger.

"I am quite impressed by the traction the Android ecosystem is getting," Chris Moore, a partner with Redpoint Ventures, Menlo Park, Calif., said Tuesday at the Reuters Global Technology Summit in San Francisco.

Android 2.2, code-named Froyo, will support Flash 10.1 and is expected to include native USB tethering, Wi-Fi hotspot capability and faster performance. Google, which released Android 2.1 in January, hasn't said when it plans to release Android 2.2.

One early issue with Android has been the fragmentation of different devices running different versions of the OS, but Google appears ready to tackle this at I/O. Justin Mattson, Developer Advocate at Google, will lead a session entitled "Casting a wide net: how to target all Android devices" which include strategies "for providing cross-version compatibility."

Other Android sessions at I/O focus on tasks like game development, user interface design and writing better performing Android apps. Details on Thursday's scheduled Android sessions are marked "to be announced," which could mean they're follow-up sessions from the Android 2.2 news that's expected Wednesday.

Android has come a long away in just three years' time and now ships on more than 60,000 mobile devices daily, according to Google. Tablet devices may also be part of the Android roadmap. Google has solid momentum around Android and what comes out of I/O will be closely watched from many corners of the IT industry.