Google Inc. said it's on schedule to deliver the first mobile phones that run its Android operating system to customers by the second half of this year.

Google is developing Android -- which will let users check e-mail, search the Web and watch videos on their phones -- to compete with systems offered by Microsoft Corp., Apple Inc. and Research In Motion Ltd. Online advertising on phones in the U.S. may jump to $4.8 billion by 2011 from $1.6 billion this year, according to New York-based research firm EMarketer Inc.

``They look at mobile as one of the emerging, multi-decade opportunities,'' Scott Kessler, an analyst with Standard & Poor's in New York, said in a Bloomberg Television interview. ``This is about market share for Google right now.''

[breitbart]