Android Smartphones getting popular in Australia

It started with Optus and the HTC Dream, end of 1st quarter of 2009, followed shortly by 3 (Hutchison), with the HTC Magic. There was not much corporate/Telco interest Android-wise here in Melbourne, and I could assume the same Australia-wide. Around the same time, Harvey Norman ,a major consumer electronics retail company down-under, ran with the HTC Hero and the HTC Tattoo (later with the Tattoo). At that time, I owned an ADP1 (Android Dev Phone 1, Google’s first development phone, an unlocked HTC Dream, with some nice art on its back cover) and that was enough for me then.

Recently, Optus started 2 Android Smartphones from Motorola, the DEXT and the BACKFLIP, a good start I should say, but the general population was unaware of what Android was, where it stood and why should they even consider it. All that until Telstra got on the Android bandwagon and got the exclusivity on the HTC Desire, hence the Telstra HTC Desire review that happened a few months back and I was one of the lucky 25 to be selected to review the phone.

We are seeing a sudden interesting surge in interest regarding the Android Platform now in Australia. Here is what I’ve got as per each telco’s Android offering (device only, current and not talking about plans, contracts, etc…)

NOTE: this information was gathered by browsing the different shops in Melbourne city. I will be confirming these soon.

Telstra, 2 devices
• HTC Desire
• LG Optimus
• Sony Ericsson Xperia X10

Vodafone, 2 devices
• HTC Legend
• Google’s Nexus One (online order only)
• Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 (could be online order only – will confirm)

Optus, 8 devices
• Samsung Galaxy S
• Sony Ericsson Xperia X10
• Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 mini
• ASUS Garmin A1
• Motorola MILESTONE
• Motorola QUENCH
• Motorola DEXT
• Motorola BACKFLIP

3 (Hutchison), 2 devices
• HTC Legend
• Sony Ericsson Xperia X10

Virgin, 1 device
• Sony Ericsson Xperia X10

Only one of these phones can be updated (officially) to version 2.2 of Android, a.k.a FroYo, and it’s the Nexus One from Vodafone, when you can only get online. HTC is known to be working on integrating their Sense UI with FroYo, for a “soon-to-be-know” release date. The Sony Ericsson devices are still running Android version 1.6, a.k.a Donut, with a known September update to version 2.1, a.k.a Flan, but no FroYo version update on the horizon. Devices from Samsung are running version 2.1, well at the least the Samsung Galaxy S that was on display today at Optus was a 2.1 version. As for Motorola devices, I think the Milestone is running version 2.0, a.k.a Elcair, out of the box and the others I do not know, yet.

I will be confirming those details and posting the results here very soon!

Cheers and happy phone hunting.

Today was one of those days… I haven’t written a thing on this blog since the Telstra HTC Desire review ended. I have been busy with both work and my uni exams where around the corner, and the lack of necessary hardware made it not quite possible. I’m now on holidays (a short one) and also the proud owner of a powerful HP Pavilion dv6 3042tx laptop, which I favoured over the latest MacBook Pro as Apple’s Intel Core i7 offering was only a dual core (hyperthreading at 4), starting with 4GB ram, while my new machine is an Intel Core i7, quad core, with 8GB ram straight out of the box. But that’s another review, which I will write, someday, soonish…