It might be holding the likes of Farmville and Mafia Wars back in the wings, but Zynga's announcement that it's developing titles for Android is nevertheless an important coup for Google.

The publisher's support for the platform – announced during Facebook's unveiling of its fresh mobile set up - comes less than a year after if first revealed its intention to bring its social line up to iPhone.

Poking AndroidThe first title set to make the leap is a port of early iPhone release Live Poker, with Zynga confirming all such releases will come fully equipped with Facebook's new Single Sign On set up – itself designed to make logging into Facebook Mobile in-app a succinct process.

Attention is now turning to just how Zynga will fund its releases on the platform, expected to launch on Android without charge.

In-app purchases on Android pale in comparison to the firstparty set up employed on iOS, with speculation suggesting Zynga may instead opt to adopt an ad supported model, perhaps making use of Google's AdMob to fund its releases.

[source: VentureBeat]