The industry sees the N8 as an attempt by Nokia to win back customers moving on to a host of phones from Taiwan's HTC - whose phones are based on Android systems - Apple's iPhone 4, and Blackberry.

Apple questions research that says smartphones using Google's Android OS have surpassed iPhone sales in the US.

LG Electronics warned that profits at its struggling handset division would be slow to recover, as it retools its business to introduce Android-based devices in a fast-growing, high-end smartphone segment, including new models for Verizon.

At the Web 2.0 conference, Adobe is cheering for Android with demonstrations on Android devices, free Android phones for its employees and now, a demonstration of Flash running on an Android tablet powered by Nvidia's Tegra 2.

Microsoft and HTC signed a patent deal involving HTC's mobile smartphones running the open source Android operating system

China Unicom doesn't use Google search boxes on its phones and only works with companies that abide by Chinese law, according to Lu Yimin, president of the telecom company.

In September 2009, the Android OS was tied for last place in consumers' preference among the major mobile operating systems. Since then, it has surged into second place ahead of all competitors except the iPhone OS.

A day after Google confirmed its Android media event next week pricing details and the terms of sale were leaked for its highly anticipated Nexus One smartphone.