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While all the world is all a’twitter about Google Chrome OS, it is time to take a couple of minutes to reflect on Google’s other OS Android.

After a slowish start with only one handset available for a long time my impression is that there is a growing momentum behind Android. There are now 5 handsets available from HTC and Samsung, showing the flexibility of the platform.

And if the rumour mills are to believed (and they aren’t often wrong) Sony Ericcson and Nokia are also preparing Android phones, amongst others. Motorola are also poised to jettison Windows Mobile in favour of Android.

More importantly, with 02 getting the rights (not yet confirmed) to the Palm Pre and already having the exclusive on the iPhone – there is little choice of carrier if you want a state of the art smartphone.

Google aren’t talking much, but at a presentation I went to recently they were stressing mobile, particularly allied to maps, very strongly. And looking at the statistics they shared and some of the uses to which smartphones are being put to, it is hard not to see 2010 as the (takes a deep breath) year of the mobile.

So why not the iPhone? After all it is the leading player (in mindsets if not volume), has an large developer community around it, the oft quoted billion app downloads, and it looks great, (although the icons are starting to look a little bit Fisher-Price imho)

Well the answer is simple, pace of innovation. The open (linux based) platform of the Android means that developers can access the platform and add things to it. Unlike the iPhone with it’s annual June lovefest where Apple release their goodies, Android innovation happens daily, and it is mostly ported back to earlier handsets.And in less than a year (the G1 was introduced to the UK in September 2008) the OS has matured, is feature rich and has reached version 1.5 (approaching the magic 2.1 when things really work). Oh and it is natively multitasking, and has naturally great integration with Google products Gmail, Maps, Apps, Docs etc.

And whilst on the application side, whilst there is not the sheer number of fart machines and other useful apps (only joking) the ones that are appearing are very good. For example Wired says that Spotify for the Android should frighten Apple (http://bit.ly/e3gHO), and Nick Brown, Spotify’s MD says that they are able to do more with Android as they can integrate further into the OS. So it’s volume versus openness and only time will tell.

The other development byproduct that might help is that by having put your app on Android, it is not such a leap to put it on desktop linux (and Android is poised to make a move to nettops). This is where Chrome OS starts fitting in nicely.

This is probably the most interesting time for mobile for a few years, and I for one look forward to the innovations coming down the line.