As expected, Australia has its first official Android phone with the launch today of the HTC Dream, initially available on Optus The arrival of a locally supported Android model is welcome, as is the news that Google applications won’t count towards data usage. But it’s a pity that the price plans are the usual-for-the-market mishmash of access costs plus extra phone charges and other minor conditions. In practice, this is the big-picture story for 24-month contracts: $74 with 500MB of data, $92 for 700MB data and unlimited texts, $122.95 with 1.5GB of data and free calls to any Australian number, and $132 for a similar deal with 3GB of data. Nick at Gizmodo reports that the phone isn’t locked to an Optus SIM, but since it’s not being sold as a standalone, it’s still effectively an Optus-only deal.
ToneFunk
Friday, February 6, 2009 at 12:52 AMToo expensive yet again. They need to take price modeling away from marketing departments in Australia. Price points are too high. It’s the same story with pay tv. $49.99 for 2GB and they’ll sell like wildfire – and they’ll make lots of money.
Neerav Bhatt
Thursday, May 21, 2009 at 4:08 PMI bought my HTC Dream outright from a mobile phone store for $849 because I didnt want to go on contract with Optus – it’s just not being advertised thats all
?
Thursday, June 4, 2009 at 6:56 PMwhere did you buy yours outright from?