It's always fun to root for the little guy, but more importantly, it's fun to root for the $200 unlocked Android phone with 3G, right? It wasn't clear what would become of Ruslan Kogan's dream of building his own Android set after Google apparently told him the Agora's design
wasn't such a good idea, but let's be honest: the dude probably didn't build his Australian off-brand electronics empire by giving up every time he hit a bump in the road. We talked to Ruslan today to confirm reports that there's a new model in the works, and he assured us that his company is "certainly in the process of redesigning and launch [sic] the improved
Kogan Agora" -- which presumably means he'll be putting a phone onto the market that'll overcome the app compatibility issues that kept the original model from shipping this month. We don't have a timeframe yet, but considering how quickly he was able to pump out the first draft, we wouldn't be surprised to see something within a handful of months.
posted Jan 27th 2009 12:23PM
It's disappointing but understandable. You can now pre-pre-order with a $30 deposit. The very limited availablity of Android compatible phones in Australia is really making developing for the platform problematic. We ported our free mBox fax and Voice app from the iPhone (which was very popular) to the Android (which has had only a few downloads). The fact that you need an Android phone to search the Android marketplace also hasn't helped...
Craig
www.mBox.com.au