The smartphone wars heated up even further today as Verizon announced a partnership with Google to support the latter’s Android mobile phone management and operating system. The move comes hard on the heels of T-Mobile’s announcement that it would release an Android phone in time for the holidays.

A wide variety of devices using Google’s OS and pre-loaded with Google services and programs will be announced within a few weeks, according to Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam, who spoke at a press conference earlier today.

"This is a family of devices – it’s not just a smartphone or PDA," said McAdam, whose words have been painted by analysts as a comeback to critics who say that Verizon’s smartphone offerings lag behind those of other wireless providers. Crucially, the new devices will support Google Voice, the VoIP service over which Google has publically battled with AT&T.

Motorola is widely expected to be the first manufacturer to release an Android phone, but multiple manufacturers are said to be developing products for the Verizon-Android pairing.

This entry was posted by Mobility Management News Desk on Tuesday, October 6th, 2009 at 5:04 pm and is filed under Managing Mobile Devices News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.

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