Kogan Agora Android Phone Hits Major Snag

January 16, 2009 By Nick Mokey

The Australian company has indefinitely delayed its Agora handset after encountering problems due to its smaller screen size.

Though no one ripped the wraps off any new Android phones at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, fans of the OS at least had the previously announced Kogan Agora to look forward to. But not anymore.

The Australian manufacturer announced on Friday that its development team had run into potentially serious interoperability issues that will indefinitely delay the device, which was supposed to begin shipping by Jan. 29.

What kind of issues could possibly strike this late in the game? Apparently, the Agora’s display (which was half the size of the display on the G1) wouldn’t be able to handle many of the apps developed for Android, and designed to run at a different native resolution.

Though the phone had already reached the manufacturing stage, company founder Ruslan Kogan says he chose to withhold it anyway. “I cannot disappoint you by supplying a product that I am aware will shortly have significant limitations,” he wrote.

Since the company had already taken preorders for the unit, it will be refunding them within seven days. Though Kogan says the Agora will be redesigned, he has not yet announced how long that will take.

Showing 2 comments

Exclusive Android at 10:01am 29th January 2010 Thanks for the read. i was wandering about this handset.
Kontra at 10:58pm 18th January 2009 The iPhone has climbed to the top of the most popular smartphones in the U.S. with a single model. Except for a very small list of obvious hardware differences between the iPhone and iPod touch, Apple's mobile platform by now offers a uniform market of 20+ million users, all carrying an identically configured device. Same industrial design, same OS, same multi-touch UI, same iTunes multimedia content, same DRM, same peripherals, same purchasing process, and same coherency that has already resulted in 10,000+ apps and half a billion downloads at the App Store.

iPhone developers do not have to worry about differing UIs or device configurations. They don't have to accommodate all kinds of input devices from trackballs to multi-touch to stylus. They don't have to invent their own syncing or notification systems. They don't have to negotiate for different app stores. And as Kogan found out too late, they don't have to worry about "compatibility and interoperability in the near future" in the form of varying screen sizes and resolutions.

Ironically, if the iPhone platform can fail to dominate the smartphone market because it's too closed, the Android platform may fail because it's too open, as I explain here:

"Agora phone exposes Android's Achilles Heel"
http://counternotions.com/2009/01/19/agora/