By Patrick Avenell

The gap between a person’s smartphone and home phone will soon be even smaller, with VTech Australia, the distributor of Telstra-branded home phones, revealing it is working on a new cordless home phone running the Android operating system.

In addition to its Android home phone, VTech has stepped up its production of handsets to take advantage of the continued rollout of the National Broadband Network (NBN).

These new products could be released as soon as this year.

“VTech has some aggressive launch plans in place for the second half of 2012, introducing new models that will further enhance both the retailer and consumer experience in the current cordless phone market,” VTech Australia managing director Mark Franklin told Current.com.au.

“We are also heavily investing in the future of telecommunications in Australia, working closely with our local partners to develop products that will take advantage of the benefits the NBN project will offer consumers, such as high definition audio, as well as building other smartphone type features into the home cordless phone, such as the Android operating system and touchscreen technology.”

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The bridging of the gap between the smartphone and the cordless phone was ramped up in 2011 when several suppliers, such as Uniden and Oricom, introduced Bluetooth pairing, allowing landline and mobile phone numbers to be managed from either the smartphone or cordless phone handset.

A VTech-manufactured Telstra home phone. These phones traditionally run off proprietary operating systems that are very simplistic compared to those offered by smartphones.