Telegraph Media Group (TMG) has unveiled an application for Google’s new Android operating system for mobile phones.

The application delivers content from the newspaper’s website to mobile devices, without requiring the user to access the site through a browser.

TMG has become the first UK publisher to launch an application on Google’s Android Marketplace – a repository for downloadable applications similar to Apple’s App Store for its popular iPhone handset. This is unsurprising, however – Android has only just been released in the US, and will not be available in the UK until next month.

“We’re delighted to be the only UK provider in the Android Marketplace at launch,” said TMG CIO Paul Cheesbrough. “Mobile access to our content and products is a growing part of our offering, and Android provides us with a rich and innovative platform to reach our customers.”

TMG is an enthusiastic client of Google’s services – it already uses Google’s webmail and online application services – and is something of a guinea pig for the search giant’s new products.

Cheesbrough, who joined TMG last year after leaving his position as digitial media controller at the BBC, writes a blog on the Telegraph.co.uk website. In a post from June 2008, he discussed the future of mobile software.

“Whilst the iPhone is impressive,” he wrote, “there’s a piece of 15-year-old technology tucked away inside it that’s really driving mobile to the next level – the Internet browser.”

“We’re only just beginning to see the power of the software and the hardware combine with the improved bandwidth provided by both cellular networks and wi-fi hot spots,” he continued. “The coming together of these three factors provides for a much more powerful and addictive user experience, and this can only go to the next level when Google’s platform starts to make inroads into the marketplace.”

Further reading

Prolonged GMail outage angers business users

Is Google Chrome an OS?
Newly launched browser from search giant could point to an operating system for software-as-a-service applications

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