BARCELONA—As chip manufacturers begin to show prototype mobile phones running the Google Android operating system, an online community of ‘droid devotees is taking shape in the form of blogs, newsgroups and the inevitable coattail riders.

Texas Instruments (TI) announced one such prototype phone today at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. TI’s device shows Bluetooth and Wi-Fi integration, officials explained.

Other companies conducting Android demonstrations at the trade show include ARM, Marvell, NEC, Qualcomm and ST Microelectronics, but those companies have not yet announced details.

Meanwhile, the bloggers are busy. These include; Android Blog, AndroidBlog.net, AndroidGuys, Google Android and Just Another Android Blog. Google’s official communities include a newsgroup and a bug tracker.

On the corporate front, mobile content specialist Tira Wireless said last month that it’s offering Android development and porting services. And security vendor F-Secure, on its Web page, notes: “Of course, we at F-Secure have to think what effect, if any, open platforms might have on the future of mobile malware. Will an open standard for mobile phones make mobile malware more or less of a problem? Might this accelerate or decelerate the evolution of mobile malware?”

Time will tell.