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A few days after the Symbian Foundation announced a line-up of new supporters, including AT&T and AOL, the Open Handset Alliance has hit back, signing up 14 new members, including Vodafone and Sony Ericsson. The OHA, the supporters' club for Google Android, is starting to make significant inroads into organizations, especially in Europe, that have a more natural affinity to Symbian.

Sony Ericsson certainly falls into that category, having been a founder member of Symbian - before it was taken over by Nokia, which will now put the OS into open source. Until earlier this year, SE based all its smartphone developments on Symbian and the UIQ software platform, which it co-owned with Motorola. Then it brought out its first Windows-based handset, the Xperia X1, and announced it would conduct a parallel smartphone strategy with models for Symbian, Android and Windows - putting UIQ on the back burner in the process, especially once Motorola selected Android as its primary smartphone system.

SE said joining the OHA would complement that new Open OS strategy, and aims to launch an Android phone in mid-2009. Most smartphone majors are now pursuing multiple OS strategies, and this week Samsung said it would expand the list of OSs, applications and services available for its handsets in a drive for market share in a pressurized market. Young Cho Chi, senior VP of strategic planning, said the company would double the number of smartphone models it ships in 2009, extending touchscreens down the food chain and releasing its first Android model some time next year. "Most of our products are still based on our proprietary OS, but next year we have a plan to double our open OS models with a good mix between Microsoft Windows Mobile, Symbian and Linux," he said.

Apart from SE, Vodafone and Chinese handset maker Huawei, the other new OHA members are chip firms AKM Semiconductor, ARM and Atheros; netbook vendors Asustek and Toshiba; SE co-owner Ericsson; mobile software houses Borqs and Omron; navigation device maker Garmin; Japanese operator Softbank Mobile; and integrator Teleca. Total membership is now 47.

Meanwhile, the earliest commercial vendor of Android-based devices, HTC, has benefited from its quick action. The Taiwanese company posted record profits in the month of November, up 22.1% year-on-year and up 10.8% on October, mainly because of its expanded US range. Stars of the show were the Android-based T-Mobile G1, and the Touch Diamond and Touch Pro.

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