According to information from the Open Handset Alliance, China's telecommunications manufacturer Huawei and 13 other companies, including Vodafone, Toshiba and Sony Ericsson, have jointed the alliance to lend support to the Android open source platform-based Google phone.

The new members say in a joint statement that they promise to support the open source Android mobile device platform developed by Google and will be committed to its commercial success. In addition, members of the Open Handset Alliance will produce handsets based on the Android operating system and provide professional programming skills, mobile phone products and services to the Android source code project.

Li Jilin, vice president for Huawei Communications, says Huawei is committed to deploy Android devices in 2009. The company believes that the Android platform will provide an innovative edge in end-user satisfaction.

The Open Handset Alliance was jointly founded by Google and 33 other companies, including Intel, HTC, China Mobile, Motorola, Qualcomm, T-Mobile, Telefonica de Espana, LG and eBay. The first Android-based Google phone named G1 was launched by T-Mobile in October 2008 and the second Android-based Google phone Agora is reportedly to be launched by the Australian company Kogan at the end of January 2009.