Despite a three-month exclusivity deal on HTC’s new flagship Android smartphone, Telstra promises pricing will be “very aggressive’.
MWC 2010, Barcelona | Telstra will release its first Android smartphone in April, having locked in a three-month exclusivity deal on the new HTC Desire.
“We’re very excited about our first foray into Android” said Ross Fielding, Telstra’s Executive Director of Wireless, Applications and Services. “We’ve been working with HTC for a while and we’ve kicked some big goals together.”
However, while Telstra has sole rights to the Desire for the first three months, Fielding told APC that “our pricing is going to be very aggressive”. The carrier will also customise the Desire’s Sense UI to include
links to Telstra services such as Mobile Foxtel.
Coming to Telstra in April: HTC's aptly-named Desire, running Android 2.1
Both Fielding and Peter Chou, HTC’s President and CEO, hinted that the carrier might also add the Windows Mobile HD Mini to their roster. Chou told APC that he would be visiting Australia in March for a product launch with Telstra, but that this would not be for the Desire. (Telstra already has an exclusivity agreement on HTC’s HD2, and has also customised that phone to highlight their own services.)
Like the HTC HD2, the Desire will sport a modified UI to promote Telstra services
Fielding said that Telstra chose not to rush into supporting Android until it felt the platform and the devices were ready.
“I’m pretty confident we made a good call about not going into Android too soon” Fielding told APC. “Android has a wonderful openness and ability to integrate services but we had to made a call about where we think the OS sits, about the usability and user interface.”
But Android 2.1 is the right platform, and HTC’s Desire is the right device at the right time, Fielding says. “The OS has gotten to a point where, combined with the handset, you can say ‘this works’. The services, the UI and usability and the form factor, all those things come together”.
The Desire also hits a “sweet spot” in Telstra’s handset range for both “pricing and demographics”, Fielding says. “There was a gap in our product range, and the Desire is great around social networking and getting customers online. We see a massive opportunity for growth.”
David Flynn is attending Mobile World Congress 2010 in Barcelona as a guest of Samsung.