By Alexei Oreskovic SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc, whose Android software reigns as the world’s dominant smartphone operating system, will step up efforts to make inroads into cars, televisions and other devices at its annual developer conference this week, sources familiar with the matter said. The Internet company is racing against rivals such as Apple Inc, Samsung Electronics Co and other companies to extend its business into a broadening field of Internet-connected devices. “It's a land grab,” said Sameet Sinha, an analyst with investment bank B. Riley & Co. “The person who gets a platform which controls the devices could be the dominant operating system, not of just devices, it could be the operating system of your home.” “New platforms offer new opportunities for hardware sales, advertising sales, e-commerce sales, all of these,” Sinha said. Google would not say whether Chief Executive Larry Page will speak at the two-day Google I/O conference, which begins on Thursday morning and is expected to draw more than 6,000 developers from around the world.



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