gizmo heaven

A lot of visitors to GizmoHeaven have been searching for info on the Android powered Agora. I was about to write a pre-release review when the bombshell was dropped two days ago by Kogan head honcho Ruslan Kogan on his company website;
“I’m disappointed to have to tell you that the Kogan Agora has to be delayed indefinitely.
This delay comes due to potential future interoperability issues.
The Agora did reach a very late stage of development. Manufacturing had commenced and it was a matter of days from being shipped to … ”

Due to be released at the end of this month, and after several long delays, it seems the plug has been permanently pulled from this much anticipated android powered gadget.

Originally to be an iPhone like device complete with touch screen at a much cheaper price, the Agora was to be the first android based phone to be released in Australia. Kogan also promised the Agora would be in the $199 price range.

The Kogan Agora

As it turned out the Kogan is a BlackBerry copy, with a lower resolution screen (320 x 240), and costing $299 for the standard Agora,or $399 for the Agora Pro which includes WiFi, GPS and a 2 megapixel camera.
And therein lies the reason given for the latest delay. Kagan says; “I now believe that in order to access all the Android platform has to offer, the Agora must be redesigned.”
The screen resolution would have been substandard for Googles Android applications, and the Agora would have come face to face with the real deal when the G1 gets released in Australia through Optus shortly.

At the original price range, and the promise of being able to purchase the Agora free of any lock in contract created a buzz, and put the Agora on a lot of wish lists. Many had already pre-ordered through the Kogan website.

As Kogan’s mantra is cutting out the middle man by manufacturing, importing and retailing straight to the customer, he has delivered in the past and has built a good following in the tech community and simple consumers alike. So there was no reason to doubt Kogan would deliver on his Agora dream.

So for now the Agora saga continues…..

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 18th, 2009 at 1:35 am and is filed under Cell Phone/ PDA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.