Mobile phone manufacturer HTC is believed to be planning an Australian launch of a mobile handset based on Google's Android platform, with Optus and possibly other carriers to support the device.
Australia's top four mobile carriers were unable today to say whether they had plans to locally sell phone handsets based on Google's Android operating system.
This morning, HTC launched the first Android phone to come to Australia: HTC Dream, otherwise known as G1. It will be available from Optus on 16 February, from $59 a month.
It is fast approaching D-Day for the first Australian Google Android phone, the Kogan Agora, to reach the hands of excited customers, but most local carriers haven't given the handset much thought.
Online retailers have begun to flog HTC Google Android phones to Australian consumers, with the first copies having turned up on the Australian website of auction giant eBay site, although Australian telcos don't seem to have prepared for the imports.
Around one third of Australia's telcos have shut their doors over time, but that isn't stopping new ventures hoping to chip away at carriers' mobile call bonanza. By fighting carriers at the smartphone rather than the home phone, could the latest two contenders be onto something big?
The amount of attention the HTC Dream gets when I flash it around in New Zealand is quite remarkable; and the HTC Magic on Vodafone seems set to get even more.
Given that the new iPhone 3G S is rated at up to 7.2Mbps, you'd think Telstra would be all over it as a potential show pony for Next G's purported high-speed performance. Yet the opposite seems to be true.
2008 was a cracker year for telco in Australia, with so many huge events happening that those at the beginning of the year have been drowned by the importance of those at the end.
With the Australian release of two Android powered smartphones coming closer to fruition, it's time to chuck these Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots in the ring.
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