Google’s Android May See More Investments From Motorola; Nokia And Verizon Spotted Among Developers

Perhaps now is the time for Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) to get a bit more nervous. Even before T-Mobile launches the G1, the first Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Android phone, it appears more companies may invest more heavily in the platform, or are considering jumping on the bandwagon, if a report by TechCrunch quoting an unidentified source bears out. The most significant of these commitments may be coming from Motorola (NYSE: MOT), one of the original partners in the Open Handset Alliance. Reportedly, Motorola already has 50 people on its Android team and is bumping that up to 350, TechCrunch says. The source was an Android developer, who was approached by a headhunter to join the team.

This part sounds a bit more iffy, but the same source has also seen people from Nokia (NYSE: NOK) and Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ) at a recent Android developer conference. In general, in order to be an attendee, supposedly you had to have an Android application. Neither Nokia nor Verizon are official members of the Open Handset Alliance.

Nokia and Verizon’s interest in the conference could be fairly tame, however, recently Nokia has hinted that it may become interested in developing on the Linux operating system as a hedge against its reliance on the Symbian OS, which it recently purchased and plans to open source. However, the one thing that Symbian has been trying to drum up more publicity on is the fact that the Linux mobile operating system is a very fragmented industry with lots of difference flavors causing a ton of potential headaches. Linux could become a bigger threat going forward if Android became the standard Linux mobile OS. Verizon Wireless has already showed its interest in Linux after becoming a member of the technology’s trade association called the LiMo Foundation.

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