Kogan delays Android-powered Agora indefinitely

By Joseph Hanlon on 16 January 2009

(Credit: CNET Australia)

Australia's first smartphone to run on Google's Android, the Kogan Agora Pro, has been delayed indefinitely with its distributor citing its low-resolution display as the reason for not shipping the handset in its current form.

"It now seems certain the current Agora specifications will limit its compatibility or interoperability in the near future," said Kogan founder Ruslan Kogan in a statement.

"Since the design of the Agora, the Android community has been growing quickly ... I now believe that in order to access all the Android platform has to offer, the Agora must be redesigned."

The Kogan Agora and Agora Pro smartphones feature a 2.5-inch QVGA (240x320-pixel) resolution display. The only other commercially available Android phone to date, the HTC Dream, features a 3.2-inch display with a 320x480-pixel resolution.

Google's Android OS is an open-source platform allowing software developers to freely create new applications and make them available to download from the Android Marketplace. As the Dream is the only Android handset on the market, developers will have been developing for screens with a resolution similar to its display.

Kogan will refund all money raised through the pre-sale of the Agora handsets. A new Android phone from the company is in development.

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Topics: agora, android, google, htc, Kogan, mobile phone, open source

Comments (1)

Troy Kelly commented on 21/01/2009 18:39

Has anybody worked out if this is a genuine "delay" caused by a legitimate decision at Kogan based on hardware issues, or was the intent never to really deliver the phone?
Kogan would have held on to a fair amount of cash, in some cases for over two months.
There has been no definitive evidence that the handset was ready for delivery. When the project was "delayed" it was less then two weeks until delivery in Australia. It can take that long just to ship product here from China, let alone get it made in the first place.
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