Gadgetus interruptus
There was an announcement today from Orange saying the HTC Desire S was available across the UK. I haven't been into any Orange shops yet, but if you check out the website there's no sign of it.
PC World has been saying the Motorola Xoom tablet will be available in the first week of April for ages. It's now the 8th - i.e. the second week - and there's still no sign of it. Carphone Warehouse doesn't reckon it's getting the Xoom til the middle of the month now, but it has just announced availability of the Tegra 2 Hannspad for half the price. Makes you wonder why Moto's charging so much for the Xoom.
I'm starting to get the hump with companies getting me all aroused about a new gadget and then three months down the line still not delivering. There's only so long a bloke can hold on, you know what I mean? So I thought I'd have a butcher's around the operators' websites and see what is actually available to buy.
Of the devices launched this year, Orange seems to only have the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play in stock. They're offering the iPad 2, but I just rung ‘em up and they won't have any for a couple of weeks. There aren't even many phones in the ‘coming soon' section, but Orange seems to be quite excited about the Motorola Atrix.
I think I like Vodafone's phone site the most because it lets you sort by how recently a phone was added, making writing this sort of thing easier. Again the only device I can see that was launched this year is a SE one - this time the Arc - but even that's on pre-order. There are quite a few phones in the ‘coming soon' section, including the Samsung Galaxy S II and Tab 10.1v, but no sign of when.
O2 has got the Samsung Galaxy Ace, which I hadn't even heard of and is a lower-end Galaxy S II, but that's about it and it seems to think that the prospect of Take That tickets is gonna make me more likely to buy one. I'd pay not to go to a Take That gig man. The ‘coming soon' section is pretty thin to be honest.
The 3 website is a bit of a pain to search on; it wouldn't just give me a list of all the phones. But if you can be bothered to persist, there are a few new phones available, including the two SE one, the Galaxy Ace, and the HTC Desire S. If 3's got a ‘coming soon' section I couldn't see it. T-Mobile has the Xperia Arc and the Galaxy Ace, but that's about it. It doesn't reckon the Moto Atrix is turning up until June.
Now I might have missed a few, and there seem to be some phones on the CPW site that aren't on the operator sites for some reason, but the majority of the phones that were launched at MWC or CES still aren't in the shops, and that winds me up.
Still, it's not all Xoom and gloom (see what I did there?). There's only a month to go until I can get my hands on the Gresso Luxor World Time Gold. That phone is bling-tastic - it's made from 18 carat gold, with six Swiss watches and Italian leather on the back! It's pure class man, and well worth the $30 grand. Laters.
