Google Android shown at 3GSM congress

Google Android phone by HTC A prototype of Google's new Android mobile phone technology has gone on show at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Android is a free software system based on Linux open-source technology, and some believe may shake up the handset industry when released to the wider public, expected end 2008. Google has teamed with a large group of mobile-handset makers and other technology companies to make mobile-phone software. It appears from currently available information that the software is a direct rival to Nokia's S60 platform. Google has made software applications that allow internet searching via mobile phones for some years, but the new software will run the actual operating system of the phone, which controls applications and interacts with the hardware, and so allow for more advanced options.