HTC, the company that made the G1 telephone for T-Mobile, allegedly is working on a new Android-based touch-screen telephone for Australian carrier Telstra. The gadget-focused Smarthouse writes Mon. it heard that word from a senior Telstra executive at the just-ended electronics Show in Las Vegas:.

The screen is said to be larger than current offerings from HTC. Meanwhile, our co-workers at ZDNet Australia report that Telstra–and other Australian telephone companies–aren’t showing much interest in what’s sure to be the state’s first Android telephone, the Kogan Agora.

The Agora is booked to ship to buyers on Jan twenty-nine. Telstra appears inclined to hedge its gambles on Android gizmos. In Nov , Telstra Chairperson Sol Trujillo–in the company of Microsoft Manager Steve Ballmer–was rather dismissive of Google’s telephone technology : “My view is, ( Android is ) interesting, not compelling,” Trujillo expounded. The issue is when you get into the second, 3rd, and 4th generation ( s ),” he revealed at the point.

According to Smarthouse, Telstra operatives at CES took a glance at the new Palm Pre, one of the highlights of the show, and found it lacking:. We have seen both and we think the new HTC telephone will be a genuine rival to the iPhone and the Pre which at this time looks nice but is still not dropped at market. Palm claims the Pre will be available in the 1st half 2009. The telephone offers Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, a 3.1-inch display, GPS, 8GB of storage, and a slide-out keyboard.