Mitchell Bingemann | February 04, 2009
AUSTRALIA'S first Google-powered mobile phone will be unveiled in the lead-up to Valentine's Day.
HTC's Android mobile phone sold in the US |
Optus has outmanoeuvred Telstra, Vodafone and 3 Mobile to snare the first-to-market sales rights for the mobile phone, manufactured by Taiwan's HTC.
The HTC Dream will hit local stores in mid-February.
It will be sold through Optus retailers after the carrier's parent company Singapore Telecommunications forged an exclusive sales agreement with the manufacturer, sources said.
Optus declined to comment but HTC is expected to make an announcement tomorrow.
The HTC Dream will be the first mobile phone in Australia powered by Google's Android open source operating system.
Android has been touted as a contender to Apple's popular iPhone device as the open source operating system allows aspiring developers to create home-made applications. Applications for the iPhone, on the other hand, must be approved by Apple before they are released to market.
The HTC Dream will feature a touch screen interface as well as a full, slide-out QWERTY keyboard, 3G and Bluetooth connectivity and a 3.2-megapixel camera.
The phone will also come preloaded with a bevy of Google applications including Gmail, Google Maps, Google Calender and YouTube.
Pricing for the HTC Dream is yet to be confirmed by Optus, but the device (pictured above) sells for US$179 with a two-year voice and data contract in the US on the T-Mobile network.
The HTC Dream's local debut follows the aborted launch of the Android-powered Kogan Agora in mid-January. Kogan Technologies indefinitely delayed the release of the Agora due to potential "interoperability issues".
HTC is the first company to release an Android-based handset after unveiling the device in the US and Britain in partnership with T-Mobile late last year. The operator then introduced the Google phone in the Netherlands, Czech Republic and Austria last month and in Germany on Monday.
Korean electronics giant LG says it will launch its Android handset this year but availability in Australia is yet to be confirmed.
Your Comments:
2 Comment(s)
This is a much need boost to the local market. Based on the success of an iPhone application to receive faxes that we developed we ported it to the Google android platform and have had almost no interest (mostly because of lack of handsets).
wait there is more......htc has a handful of devices coming at the end of year.....very nice phones, more appealling than the g1 dream.....
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