Google expands smartphone apps development

Search company is hiring app programmers for its Android operating system

Google is intending to step up its efforts in the smartphone arena by hiring dozens of software developers to create applications for mobile devices.

The firm has begun to recruit software engineers, product managers and user-interface experts, according to The Wall Street Journal, which cited sources close to the situation. Google has also amended some of its existing roles to work on the smartphone effort, the report claims.

To date, Google's efforts to create smartphone apps have been limited. Despite the popularity of its Android operating system, the company has so far created around 20 mobile apps in-house. These are primarily mobile versions of its existing online tools, such as Google Maps. However, with revenue from mobile apps expected to triple this year to $15.1bn (£9.5bn), Google has the mobile market firmly in its sights.

The Android operating system is still playing catch-up to Apple's iOS in terms of quantity of apps available. Android has 100,000 applications available for download, while Apple's app store has more than 350,000 apps.