open handset alliance (OHA)

The Open Handset Alliance (OHA) is an alliance of more than 60 well-known international mobile carriers, software companies, handset manufacturers, semiconductor companies and network operators initiated by Google in 2007 to realize the vision of an open, mobile platform.

According to the goals of the Open Handset Alliance, users should be able to use a more comprehensive and less expensive offering with their mobile devices. The open platform promoted by the OHA is based on Linux and competes with well-known operating systems for mobile devices such as Android, Apple's iPhone OS, Symbian OS, Palm's WebOS, Microsoft's Windows Mobile.