As reported by Reuters, LG, the world's third largest handset manufacturer, said it would be relying on Android to help it compete in the growing smartphone market.

The company, which sold 117 million phones in 2009 and predicts this will grow to 140 million in 2010, said it planned to ship around 20 smartphones, of which over half would use Google's mobile platform.

But Skott Ahn, LG's president and CEO of mobile communications warned that hardware wouldn't be enough.

"A device alone won't help us to sustain business,"he told a news conference. "We need to build a system where consumers, service operators and software providers can work together effectively."

LG launched its Application Store, which supports Android, Windows Mobile and Java games and apps, in July.

Its move to release more Android phones is a tacit rejection of its decision in February 2009 to adopt Windows Mobile as its primary OS.

"The fact that we'll have a bit more Android phones this year doesn't mean our ties with Microsoft are weakening," Ahn claimed, although he qualified this by saying, "Windows Mobile still has legacy issues that makes it challenging to compete in mobiles: we know it and Microsoft knows it."

LG hopes to have over 10 percent of the smartphone market in 2010: an area it's traditionally been weak in compared to the likes of Nokia, Apple and RIM.

[source: Reuters]