Our cousins over in Australia aren’t being left out this festive season when it comes to smartphone news in time for Christmas as the likes of RIM BlackBerry, LG and Sony Ericsson have all apparently launched new devices.

According to an article over on Current by Patrick Avenell, smartphone maker LG has announced the launch of the world’s first dual-core handset, the LG Optimus 2X which currently runs Android 2.2 Froyo but will be upgraded to Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS.

Spec wise the LG Optimus 2X features a 4 inch touch screen, 8 megapixel camera, 1.3 megapixel front facing camera, 1GHz NVIDIA dual-core processor, and 8GB memory. However the LG Optimus 2X is only available in Korea with Asia and European launches to follow, so not really of interest to Aussies at this time.

There are a couple of smartphone of more interest to Australian folk though such as the Research In Motion BlackBerry Bold 9780 which is now available in the Australian market which we have already covered and you can view that coverage by hitting up (here)

Lastly Australia now has a new Sony Ericsson device in the form of the Sony Ericsson Cedar which is available exclusively from Telsta NextG and commands a price tag of $79 on pre-paid, for which the customer gets a 2.2 inch display, numerous social networking apps, and a 2 megapixel camera and Avenell says the device is targeted towards the price conscious, young consumer.