Android Comes Out Blazing

Google's Android smartphone software got a big boost today, when the Taiwanese cell phone manufacturer HTC announced that it would roll out at least three new Android-based phones this year. Although HTC's CEO Peter Chou announced that it would ultimately focus on the massive Chinese market, the first phone, dubbed the HTC Magic, would be sold in Europe starting in April, via a partnership with Vodafone. "We hope to have a breakthrough in China this year after entering the Europe and U.S. markets," he told the Wall Street Journal.

This is a welcome boost for Google, which unveiled its first smartphone in conjunction with T-Mobile last year but has yet to truly shake up the smartphone market. As TheStreet.com's James Rogers reports, the Android phone accounted for just 4.3 percent of smartphone sales in the fourth quarter. Meanwhile, both Research in Motion's BlackBerry and Apple's iPhone doubled their market shares from the same period a year ago, to 19.5 percent and 10.7 percent, respectively. (These gains came at the expense of sad-sack Nokia, whose share dropped from 50.9 percent to 40.8 percent. Earlier today, Nokia announced plans to cut some 1,700 jobs.)

And Google's opportunities will only grow, as the number of smartphone manufacturers seeking a software partner proliferate. According to the New York Times, PC and computer chip manufacturers have watched as the PC market plateaus in relation to the exploding mobile platform sales and have decided to jump in the water. PC makers Acer and Asutek are rolling out new smartphones, and Dell is working hard on smartphone prototypes. Industry observers have long foreseen the time when PCs and smartphones would perform the same jobs, and as the race to produce ever-faster chips began to run up against overheating issues, PC and chip manufacturers are beginning to look at using their expertise to build low-power mobile devices instead.

As Times reporter Ashlee Vance points out, this won't please existing phone manufacturers, who are used to high profit margins and will now have to compete with an industry that has figured out how to thrive on leaner profits. But as far as Google's concerned, it's got the sun in the morning and the moon at night. More players entering the market means more companies willing to give Android a shot. Android has particularly struggled to gain a foothold in the enterprise and small business market; if more cheap smartphones flood the marketplace, Google could find a whole new customer base.