Google CEO and chairman Eric Schmidt announced Open Handset Alliance, a programme under which 34 partners have built an open-source mobile operating system, in a conference call Monday.

The operating system, codenamed “Android”, will be made available under “the most liberal open source license given to mobile operators ever,” creating “products of many, many different kinds,” Schmidt said, calling the system “the first truly open and complete platform for mobile devices.”

How about the long awaited Gphone? Schmidt caveatted. “It's incredibly important to say this is not an announcement of the Gphone. Rather, there will be 'thousands' of devices using this platform.”

Schmidt would not directly admit whether the Gphone is being planned, however, he did give out a hint: “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,” mocoNews reported.