Telstra's new offerings in Australia this month include devices known as the Android superphones: HTC Corp.'s HTC Sensation, dubbed as the ultimate media smartphone, and Samsung's Galaxy S II, tagged as Australia's fastest smartphone. With perennial market leaders Nokia, Apple and Research in Motion failing to launch any major offerings this year, devices running on Google's Android operating system this year. For one, Samsung has sold 3 million units of the Galaxy S II within 55 days of its release.

Without new offerings by the major smartphone makers in the first half of this year, HTC and Samsung's "superphones" have already made waves in the market.

The Samsung GALAXY S II is an Android 2.3 Gingerbread-powered devicew with a 1.2GHz dual-core processor. It has Adobe Flash support and has HD voice capability. It's 8.49mm thin and a vivid 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Plus touchscreen display. The Samsung GALAXY S II will launch on the Telstra Next G network on July 26.The Samsung Galaxy S II is certainly a good alternative to the iPhone 4. "The Galaxy S line of mobile phones has been designed to look and operate like the iPhone, and it infringes on multiple Apple utility and design patents," Apple in fact claimed in a complaint filed with the U.S. International Trade Commission.

HTC Sensation, another Android 2.3-powered mobile, has 1.2-gigahertz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, and has Adobe Flash 10.2 support. Tapping into HTC's trademark design language, the HTC Sensation's premium look and feel is enhanced by its rounded edges, aluminium unibody construction and the touch screen surface is protected by a contoured screen that feels more natural as a finger glides across it. It has a 4.3-inch qHD display for 16:9 widescreen viewing. The HTC Sensation has an 8-megapixel camera with new instant capture feature. The HTC Sensation also shoots full HD video in 1080p resolution, with full stereo sound, at up to 30 frames a second, giving you smooth video that is better than many other phones. The HTC Sensation was launched in the Telstra network on July 12.

The Android offerings can certainly beat the iPhone 4 feature-wise. But can they beat the new Nokia, BlackBerry and iPhone coming into the market in the next two months?

According to reports, Apple Inc. is releasing a thinner and lighter iPhone at the end of September. The Wall Street Journal said that the iPhone 5 is expected to be similar to the current iPhone 4, but slimmer with an improved eight-megapixel camera. The WSJ added the new iPhone will operate on Qualcomm Inc.'s wireless chips, replacing chips provided by a former unit of German chip maker Infineon Technologies AG. Bloomberg News reported that the iPhone 5 will closely resemble the iPhone 4 in some ways but will have a more powerful chip and a more advanced camera. It said iPhone 5 will have a A5 processor, a more powerful chip that was added to the iPad 2, which was released in April. Reports also say that the iPhone 5 is expected to have an improved lock screen, a separate flash unit for the camera, panoramic photo capabilities, 1080p Full HD videos, integration to Twitter, iCloud service, and improved speech recognition.

Nokia Oyj is selling later this year the Nokia N9, a Meego-based, button-less touch screen smartphone, one of Nokia's finest works to date. The MeeGo-based Nokia N9 comes with a curved design and a 3.9-inch AMOLED display. The N9 will come in black, cyan, or magenta and offers either 16 GB or 64 GB of storage. The smartphone has an 8-megapixel Carl Zeiss camera that allows for autofocus and "HD-quality video capture." The N9 also has no hardware buttons and instead provides a simple one-handed control. The Nokia N9 has an innovative new design where the home key is replaced by a simple gesture: a swipe. What's more - Nokia is releasing Microsoft Windows-based phones in the fourth quarter of this year.

Research in Motion Ltd., which also lost market share in the past year, will release the new touch BlackBerry Bold 9900/9930 in late August this year. The new Bold looks a lot like the previous version, but boasts of a 2.8" touch screen and claims to be the thinnest Blackberry phone yet. The Bold phone hasthe physical keyboard that is a trademark for BlackBerry phones and a touch screen that makes the iPhone popular. The new Blackberry Bold will sport near field communication (NCF) technology and will run on the BlackBerry 7 OS. RIM has said that aside from the new BlackBerry Bold, it will release at least six new smartphones based on its new operating system. RIM has said it has delayed the release of its new smartphones in order to meet market expectations and come out ahead of its rivals.

Are you buying the Android superphones? Or are you saving your money in the bank until Nokia, Apple and RIM release their new smartphones?

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