According to the New York Times, Google's Senior Director for mobile platforms, Andy Rubin, said at the Google I/O Developer Conference in San Francisco that the thus far extremely limited number of the Android-capable phones will soon be a passé - with the company looking at nearly 20 new devices supporting Google's Android mobile operating system, by the end of this year.

Though Rubin stopped short of naming any companies, he said that Google is involved in discussions with "eight or nine" manufacturers, working on Android-equipped phones, for the effective roll out of the devices in the coming months. At present, the only two Android phone manufacturers on the market are the G1 in the US, and the HTC Magic in Europe.

The potential number of upcoming Android-equipped phones' manufacturers stated by Rubin do not include manufacturers that are likely to take advantage of the open source OS without associating with Google.

Rubin elaborated on Google's 'licensing tiers' for Android, saying that the most open option is free to all device manufacturers, though the devices cannot be preloaded with Google's own applications; the middle tier agreement requires the inclusion of Google's apps on the device; and the full, 'sell-your-soul' agreement gives manufacturers the Google logo on their devices, with the assurance that they will not censor access to the Android Market.