69.5 million people in the U.S. owned smart phones during the three months ending in February 2011 and Google Android strengthened its #1 position with 33.0 percent market share according to a recent comScore MobiLens report.  In March 2011, Amazon released the Appstore for Android to tap into the platform’s growing popularity in games and applications. While the iOS and Android platforms continue to vie for market share in the smart phone and tablet markets, brands will need to continue to invest in building engaging applications on both platforms.

At Janrain, we believe strongly in giving our customers a choice of providers and platforms to power their user acquisition initiatives. In 2010 and Q1 2011, we released social login and sharing support for iOS based devices (iPhone and iPad). Today, as reported on TechCrunch, we announced that we are expanding our mobile platform support to include a social login and sharing SDK for the Android platform.

Key features of the Janrain Engage for Android SDK include:

• Social login for 20+ identity providers and social networks
• Social sharing to multiple networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.
• Native UI kit that displays mobile optimized social login and sharing options
• Built-in preview feature the displays how a social post would appear on the social network
• Support for the Android 2.1 platform and higher
• Ability to configure a separate list of providers for web and mobile apps

Future releases will include email and SMS sharing as well as a tablet optimized version.

Screen shots below showcase the social login and sharing experience for your apps using the Janrain Engage for Android SDK.

The SDK is being released as a public beta to give our customers and the Android development community the opportunity to provide candid feedback.

If you would like to use our SDK in your Android app, please set up a free Janrain Engage Basic account to try it out today. If you would like to learn more about our mobile offerings, please visit our Mobile products page.

Current Janrain customers can get started by visiting the Janrain Engage product dashboard. You will be presented with a beta sign up link and guided through the download and implementation process.

We look forward to your feedback.