From our sister site mocoNews: It’s official, but it’s not the ‘Gphone’ - yet. Google (NSDQ: GOOG) CEO and chairman Eric Schmidt just finished fronting a conference call with five other companies to announce the rumored Open Handset Alliance, a program under which 34 partners have built an open-source mobile operating system codenamed Android (release here). A software developer kit will be available on November 12 and the first devices powered by the OS will appear through 2008.

Schmidt: “It’s incredibly important to say this is not an announcement of the Gphone” ... “We’re not pre-announcing anything (but) if you were to build a Gphone, you would build it out of this platform. There are going to be so many other kinds of devices - imagine not just one Gphone but a thousand Gphones as a result of the partnerships.” More on Android over at mocoNews

• What is Android: The Google Phone Video Explanation
• Google Phone Round-Up: Many Partners; Increasing Speed; New Apps; Winners & Losers