Google Android – now on 50% more phones

With Samsung this week showing off their upcoming Galaxy Icon (pictured below), the number of mobile phones carrying the Google Android operating system in Australia moves to 3. That’s 3 the number, not 3 the mobile phone carrier.

Samsung-Galaxy-front.jpgIn February this year HTC released the first Android phone, the HTC Dream, or, as I like to call it, ‘The Android Phone That Optus Pretty Much Completely Hid’.

Just about to hit the shelves is the next Android phone from HTC, the Magic. The Magic loses the side-out keyboard of its predecessor, going with a full touchscreen inrerface, and improving one of the biggest complaints about the HTC Dream, its battery life. It also uses the latest version of Android, version 1.5, more commonly known as ‘Cupcake’. You’ll be able to see the Magic at 3 Mobile and Vodafone stores, any day now. Actually, some Vodafone customers have jumped the gun and been lucky enough to have picked up one a couple of weeks ago.

Samsung’s Galaxy Icon also runs Cupcake, and with a bigger battery and more power-efficient AMOLED screen it sounds a perhaps more attractive proposition than HTC’s models. The Galaxy Icon will go on sale in Australia in September 2009. Pricing and carrier details are not yet available.