Huawei giving phones away

But will users prefer the Ideos X1 to the iPhone?

When you're selling a new smartphone and your name is not Apple, one of the obvious problems is getting anybody to give a damn. While police and security guards are on hand to control the crowds at Apple's phone launches, newcomer Huawei is literally leaving its phones on the footpath in the hope that people will pick them up.

Until August 5, "at least" one Ideos X1 will be given away every work day in Sydney and Melbourne. The catch being that to work out where, you'll have to find the clues on Huawei's Facebook page.

The phone itself? The first thing you'll notice is that the X1 is smaller than an iPhone 4 or Samsung Galaxy S II. The screen is 2.8in, and the phone runs a Qualcomm MSM7225 CPU. Fingers crossed that the X1 benefits from long battery life.

The Huawei Ideos X1

The X1 also features a 32.MP camera, and runs Android 2.2. There's also a MicroSD card slot and GPS and WiFi.

Huawei isn't the only company aiming for success with cheap Android phones. Telstra started selling the Smart-Touch phone this year for under $100.

While cashed up phone users are happy to spend $59 a month or up to $900 or more on a smartphone, not everyone has that sort of spare change. So it's with interest that we watch to see if a sweet spot emerges for a cheap smartphone that's good enough to become popular.