News just in - a second Android phone has just been announced to take on the T-Mobile G1. The new handset is called the Kogan Agora, which, as you can probably tell, doesn't come from any of the major manufacturers. Kogan, it seems, are Australian, but they've beat most of the other manufacturers to market with an extremely handsome, and extremely well equipped, Android handset.

More details after the jump.

As you can see from the pics, the Kogan Agora looks very similar to the Samsung Blackjack. It has a full QWERTY keyboard, which doesn't look quite so good as the G1's slide out keyboard, as well as a touchscreen interface. In fact, most of its specification is nearly identical to the G1's:

• 2.5-inch TFT-LCD flat touch-sensitive screen.
• Integrated QWERTY keyboard.
• High-speed 3G network connection.
• One-Touch Google Search ™.
• Easy Web Browsing.
• Easy-to-use email with attachment support for images, videos, music and documents.
• Customisable Home Screen with instant Email, text message and IM notifications.
• Instant access to mobile Internet services (Gmail ™, YouTube ™, Google Talk ™, Google Calendar ™, Google Maps ™).
• Music Player.
• Bluetooth® 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rate
• microSD™ expansion slot

As such, the Agora isn't going to be any threat at all to the G1. For one thing, although it will ship internationally, its distribution channel isn't anything like that of T-Mobile's (have you ever even heard of Kogan, for example!). And with two devices that are virtually identical in terms of features, which one would you buy - the one from a well established global giant, or the one from a company you never heard of from the other side of the world?

What is important, though, is a company as obscure as Kogan can come up with an Android handset so quickly after Google's operating system was released. This shows that implementing an Android handset is neither difficult nor expensive; in fact, Kogan simply designed the Agora, sent the specs off to China, and had it developed for them.

They were therefore able to avoid the huge expense of R&D, hardware development, inventories, and, more importantly, costly tie-ins with the mobile operators.

This means that we'll soon see many other Android-based handsets on the market, as other companies realize just how easy it is to develop there own. This, in turn, should see a huge explosion in competition, as companies vie to differentiate their Android handset from everybody else's.

As far as we consumers are concerned, this is nothing but good news. The Kogan Agora is unlocked and ridiculously cheap at just $192 - $256 (the latter is the Agora Pro model, which comes with Wi-Fi and camera). Think about it: $256 for a touchscreen smartphone with GPS, Wi-Fi, HSDPA and all the same Android goodness you get in a T-Mobile G1, but with absolutely no contract to sign!

The Kogan Agora is Google's vision of the mobile Web in the flesh. 2009 should start to see the slow trickle of Android handsets turn into a flood. From dozens of small companies to the big guns of HTC, Samsung and Motorola all actively developing Android handsets, and even Sony Ericsson developing prototypes, Google's new smartphone operating system is about to turn up everywhere in all manner of shapes and sizes.

Can't wait!

[Source: Mashable, CrunchGear, Kogan]