Kogan Agora Delayed Indefinitely

Agora1.jpgI hope none of you were waiting with bated breath for your Kogan Agora smartphone to be shipped in a couple of weeks – the Aussie company has just sent out a press release saying that due to potential future compatibility issues, the phone has been delayed and will be redesigned.If you did pre-order what was to be Australia’s first Android mobile phone, Kogan have announced they’ll be refunding your money in full.

One of the potential issues is that developers could produce applications at a higher screen resolution than the Agora was destined to have, meaning the programs wouldn’t work on the phone.

I’m not sure where I sit on this issue – on the one hand, it’s good that a company isn’t just becoming another part of the Beta culture by releasing sub-par products, while on the other hand, they made such a big deal about it being cheap, open and soon to be available. There’s no timeline on when we actually will see the phone now. All the people that ordered from around the world are going to be mighty disappointed.

Have a read of the press release below, then tell me what you guys think.

Kogan Agora to be delayed

Melbourne, AUSTRALIA, 16th January 2009 – Kogan Technologies’ Agora phone will be delayed indefinitely due to potential future interoperability issues.

Kogan Technologies founder Ruslan Kogan said the phone will undergo a significant redesign in order to ensure its compatibility with all future Android applications.

“The Agora reached a very late stage of development, manufacturing had commenced and we were within days of shipping the product to customers. But it now seems certain the current Agora specifications will limit its compatibility or interoperability in the near future,” Ruslan Kogan said.

“One potential issue is that developers may create applications for the Android operating system at a higher resolution and screen size than the Agora provides in its current form.

“I am sorry for this delay, but in the interests of proving the best possible product at the best possible price, I cannot disappoint my customers by supplying a product that I am aware will shortly have significant limitations.

“My priority is to release a phone that will do justice to the Kogan brand and offer great value to our customers. Since the design of the Agora, the Android community has been growing quickly, with new developers setting out their objectives to create a host of feature-rich applications. I now believe that in order to access all the Android platform has to offer, the Agora must be redesigned.

“The Kogan team is already hard at work designing a new phone that will be better suited to the needs of Android application developers and our customers.”

All customers who pre-ordered the Agora will receive a full refund.

Ruslan Kogan will continue to blog about and discuss the redevelopment of the Agora at www.kogan.com.au/blog

[Kogan]


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