There may be just one Android phone in existence right now, but the Open Handset Alliance - the Google-backed group behind Android - is already welcoming new faces.
Today the organisation announced that 14 new companies had joined the consortium, with an eye to supporting Android and contributing to the group's open mobile standards:
The new members are: AKM Semiconductor Inc., ARM, ASUSTek Computer Inc., Atheros Communications, Borqs, Ericsson, Garmin International Inc., Huawei Technologies, Omron Software Co. Ltd, Softbank Mobile Corporation, Sony Ericsson, Teleca AB, Toshiba Corporation and Vodafone.
The addition of ARM - which provides chips for most of the mobile market - is massively important, as is the addition of Vodafone, which has huge global reach for an operator. Along with existing members like HTC, Motorola, Samsung, Broadcam, Qualcomm and others, that means there aren't big names groups which aren't part of the OHA.
Aside from those just mentioned, who are the particularly interesting names on that list? Well, it would be intriguing to see Sony Ericsson pushing out Android models (I know a lot of phonegeeks rave about SE's HTC Xperia handset) but look who else is there. Could Asus build an Android netbook? Will Garmin start using the operating system in SatNav devices?
