Kogan Agora Android goes AWOL amid clandestine claims

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Friday, 16 January 2009 14:45

IT Industry - Strategy

This is clear when we read Kogan’s statement, which notes that:

"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.”

The statement also notes that: "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.”

Once again, a screen resolution is causing this phone to be delayed? Phones come with all manner of resolutions, and plenty of developers would have jumped at the chance to create apps for this smaller screen size.

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

The only issue here is that unless a new design can quickly be arranged, and the now ditched models paid for, Kogan will be launching against a plethora of other pending Android phones, from HTC, Samsung, Motorola and a host of other phone manufacturers.

Any “second mover advantage” is now well and truly lost, with Kogan already doing damage to its reputation by ditching the launch completely.

You’d imagine that consumers will now wait until a future Kogan Android phone is actually on sale before placing any future orders, although Kogan promises that “All customers who pre-ordered the Agora will receive a full refund,” saying on its blog that this will happen within the next 7 days.

As pondered in my previous article, what will now happen to all of the Kogan Agora’s that have already been manufactured? Surely they could still be sold via eBay or Kogan’s site.

Now that the “interoperability issues” around the screen size and resolution are out in the open, anyone buying the existing Agora will be well aware of this and could buy it at an even cheaper price.

Selling them for something is better than crushing them and getting nothing, after all.

Let’s hope that nothing more sinister is at play here, and that Kogan will survive this crisis, survive a future attack of the Android clones, and deliver an Agora smartphone after all.