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Last week, Google rolled out Chrome, the search giant's first stab at a web browser for the desktop. The new application raises a lot of questions and some concerns. For instance, there are those who've asked whether Chrome: will help or hurt FireFox?; can it make money?; and - even - whether or not the new browser is Google's version of a Trojan Horse? - all excellent questions. Importantly, as far as this site's concerned, there's a good chance a version of Chrome will eventually find its way to the smartphone—via Google's Android mobile platform, according to Google co-founder Sergey Brin.

Speaking with Cnet, Brin said, "Probably a subsequent version of Android is going to pick up a lot of the Chrome stack," although the Chrome and Android were - for the most part - developed separately, so as not "to bind one's hands to the other's."

The browser already included in Android and Chrome both use WebKit, which is an open source web browser engine. So there’s already some similarity between the two.

Android, as a platform for mobile development and an operating system, falls under the auspices of the Open Handset Alliance (OHA), which is mostly composed of major mobile telephony, semiconductoer, and mobile handset players, in addition to Google, of course.

The OHA asserts Android will make it easier and less costly to develop applications for mobile phones—by removing the often complicated pre-qualification regimens and hoops mobile operators make developers jump through today—while giving these wireless carriers and phone manufacturers a great deal more flexibility in the devices the former supports and the latter creates.

In theory, all of this (more freedom, less cost, greater flexibility) should be experienced by consumers as a result of Android as well. How? By making more advanced cell phones, smartphones and (even) applications cheaper to buy and easier to use, and giving consumers a greater say in the mobile handset they choose to buy and use on their carrier's wireless network.

The first Android smartphone could arrive before the end of the year.