Well , well, well, what do we have here? A roadmap of sorts? Yes indeedy we do. The roadmap appears to have been leaked from Brightpoint, who is one of the largest suppliers of telecommunication hardware here in Australia and around the world. They are also the supplier for all VHA stock in Australia, but enough of that, let’s get into it. The roadmap shows upcoming devices (along with RRP) from LG, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Huawei and Alcatel, and runs from March to July, which is basically the whole of Q2. Hit the break for the juice.
Starting in March, we have nothing new, the LG Optimus One (RRP: $399) and the Samsung Galaxy S (RRP: $549). April is where things start to get exciting. Starting at the lower end of the price scale, we get an introduction to the Alcatel OT980 (RRP: $249), which is a relatively old handset, running Android 2.1 in a sliding portrait QWERTY form-factor, the Huawei U8500 (RRP: $249), another 2.1 packing handset, this time with full touch, rounding out the lower end is the LG Optimus Me (RRP: $249), which we alluding to being a cheap lower end/pre-paid handset.
Next up in the mid range, is the Samsung Galaxy Fit (RRP: $349) and LG Optimus 2X (RRP: $599). The Galaxy Fit is a 3.3″ full touch, running 2.2 with a 600MHz CPU. The Optimus 2X being listed helps cement the news that it is headed to Australia, and maybe on Telstra.
May will see the arrival of the Motorola Defy (RRP: $549), we’re guessing to another carrier other than Telstra and Optus (VHA?), the Alcatel OT990 (RRP: $249) which is a full touch, mid-range device that runs Android 2.2 has a 3.5″ display and powered by a 600MHz CPU, and of course the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc (RRP: $849) which we already know is headed to Vodafone & Optus.
June is the month for high-powered fun in the Android smartphone market. The roadmap shows both the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play (RRP: $949) and Samsung Galaxy S II (RRP: $899) being launched during the month and we’re going to guess they’ll both launch on multiple carriers.
Last, but not least, July will bring 2 more low-end devices to the market; the Alcatel OT908 (RRP: $99) and OT910 (RRP: $229) which are both full touch devices running Android 2.2 and powered by 600MHz CPUs. It’s highly likely that each of these Alcatel devices will headed to prepaid rather than contracts.
