Chinese telecom company ZTE Corp announced joining the Open Handset Alliance (OHA) and said it will launch smartphones based on the Android operating system in the first quarter of this fiscal.

The OHA comprises 60 mobile industry players committed towards development of the Android platform, which was initially developed by Android Inc., a company later purchased by Google.

The OHA members include HTC, Intel, Motorola, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, Samsung and LG, among others.

The flagship software of OHA, Android competes against other mobile platforms from Apple, Microsoft, Nokia and Research In Motion. The platform allows developers to make applications, independent of service operators and device manufacturers. It leverages web and Internet content to provide advanced services such as mobile mash-ups and location-based applications.

Source:techtree