The Government has offered Australia's three mobile operators, and vividwireless, renewal of their existing spectrum allocated on 15 year licences in the late 90s and early 2000s at set prices, while the Government expects to rake in $3 billion.
The HTC Touch Diamond touch screen phone is already available overseas and has been well reviewed in iTWire , so the most important things we wanted to know when it made its debut in Australia on the Telstra network, were: how much, and when?
The answer, according to Ross Fielding, Telstra's executive director product management, is $999 if purchased outright or at $0 if bought as part of Next G's $80 per month minimum spend plan over 24 months. And the launch date? Nothing definite: "late July or early August," according to Fielding. The phone will be available exclusively on the Telstra network.
Comparisons with the iPhone are and will be inevitable and Fielding seemed to spend as much time fielding questions about the iPhone as the HTC Touch Diamond. "this event is about the Touch Diamond, not the iPhone," he had to remind the audience at one point. However, if the iPhone is delivered at the equivalent of $US199, as Apple has said, it will be hard to beat.
The Touch Diamond has been tightly integrated with the range of online services available from Telstra's BigPond Mobile, and Fielding promised that there would be additional services in coming months, specifically one around the Trading Post online property.
In terms of market presence, HTC is a long way behind Apple and its president and CEO, Peter Chou, was asked what HTC intended to do to raise its profile. He gave no specific answer, saying only that "we will be doing a lot of marketing."
David Bass
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