On the 13th, I posted about how I’m living a life of pain with my current Blackberry Pearl. I mean, yeah, it’s been a solid phone. I can drop it, drown it, and slam it in a car door and it won’t break. It has its minor flaws, but overall it does what I need it to… with a lot of help from BES software. I’ve been searching for a replacement, and have finally settled on the HTC Desire, which is available through my carrier, Telus. The lowdown is that it comes with a 1ghz Snapdragon, 512mb of memory, and a 3.7″ Sony Super LCD Screen – which I’m okay with, as I know that the AMOLED screens are in short supply.

Samsung Mobile, who has been following me on twitter, was nice enough to let me know that while the Galaxy S Vibrant is launching on Bell, other carriers would be announced very soon. In my two week timeframe? I doubt it. Bell uses the same towers as Telus, but unfortunately they pretty much have exclusivity with their phones (with the iPhone being the exception). That, and of course, the devices are locked to carriers, which is the norm in North America.

In any case, halfway through last week, the HTC Desire shows up on Telus’s website, with a sticker that says “Coming Soon”. No pricing information, no launch date information, nothing. I walked into a few Telus stores, and some of them hadn’t even heard of the handset. Devastating.

Early this week, I found out that it could be launching at an amazing $79 if I renew my contract – which I had been planning to do. Another site says that it will be $299 if I renew, and an incredible $1000 if I bought it outright. I don’t put much stock into that, considering you can find it on ebay for about $600.

Today, I found out that some stores had already begun to receive their dummy units, and as of three hours ago on Facebook, I found out this:

I’m excited to move my life into the all-Android world, especially if I can build my own apps, when the App Inventor launches – talk about an amazing opportunity for my job (in an IT company), too! I’ll keep you posted.