While the iPhone SDK is still expected, Google released a new software development kitt for its mobile platform, Android.

In a note posted on Android’s website, Jason Chen, Developer Advocate highlighted the main features of the new SDK.

“New user interface - As I mentioned when we introduced the m3 version of the Android SDK, we're continuing to refine the UI that's available for Android. m5-rc14 replaces the previous placeholder with a new UI, but as before, work on it is still in-progress” Chen wrote.

Also, the new SDK, called m5-rc14 brings layout animations, geo-coding, which - enables developers to forward and reverse geo-code (i.e. translate an address into a coordinate and vice-versa) and new media codecs and support for the OGG Vorbis, MIDI, XMF, iMelody, RTTL/RTX, and OTA audio file formats.

Also a new version of ADT is available and provides improvements to the Android developer experience, Chen explained.

The Android platform was officially launched last year, on November 5, as a result of a collaboration between Google and HTC, Intel, Motorola, T-Mobile, nVIDIA and Qualcomm, with one sole purpose: to develop open standards for mobile devices. Google is working on boosting the quality of Web browsing, enhancing the audio and video experience for mobile phones.

Earlier this week, at the GSM Mobile World Conference in Barcelona unveiled the first prototype of a mobile phone especially designed for Google’s Android operating system, but neither Google nor the chip makers would say when a smart phone running Android will hit the consumer market.

There are reports that the South Korean companies Samsung and LG will unveil phones based on Google’s Android mobile phone software platform by the end of this year in the United States.