Vodafone Cancel 360 Handsets

Shortly before Christmas last year Vodafone announced a range of online services that would be branded Vodafone 360, promising a set of integrated internet services for mobile and PC, with an aim to change the way people accessed content on the move.

Along with the announcement of Vodafone 360 came two new handsets, designed with the 360 service in mind, giving simple, easy access to the Vodafone 360 portal. The two handsets that were launched, the M1 and H1 received mixed reviews from users, along with claims that customers were 'sold' the handsets as Vodafone sales staff were pressured to meet sales targets. As well as specific 360 handsets, Vodafone also aimed to give easy access to Vodafone 360 services on a whole host of devices from Nokia, Sony Ericsson, etc, with a redesigned standby screen on handsets that had branded Vodafone firmware.

Vodafone were due to launch a new 360 branded handset, which would have been the H2, but those plans have now been scrapped. Instead, Vodafone will focus their attention on bringing 360 services to a range of mobile platforms. Currently the 360 service is available on over 100 handsets and 5 platforms through Vodafone, and with this news they can now focus on delivering the content, without having to support their own devices, too.

Network branding and operator insistence on a uniform style user interface on their handsets has long been an issue with many users, with online de-branding services proving very popular, as users opt for the manufacturers version of the handset rather than the network version. If Vodafone are to make Vodafone 360 a success, they will need to offer real support to the service and deliver high quality content, or else the risk is the 360 service may end up going the same way as the branded handsets.