Vodafone360

Considering the reputation of the mobile industry, as one of fast moving, and ever developing, it may come as a surprise to some that the next 12 – 18 months are going to be some of the most important and exciting to date, as manufacturers and networks announce their latest advancements to tempt closer ties with their customers.

As the market matures and evolves, companies are ever looking for new ways to enhance the customer experience, by offering a range of services and products that capture the attention of the buying public, and the leaders in that regard in recent times have clearly been Apple. The success of the iPhone has been quite staggering, considering that feature for feature, the iPhone levels out against a mid range budget handset at best. Whilst the iPhone delivered a basic design handset, with its tablet PC style look, it really stood out with a smooth, easy to use operating system, and an excellent range of applications, allowing the end user to personalise their phones with features that are most important to them. For all the smart scrolling, multi touch touchscreen, and simplicity of use, it is the App Store that really lies behind the success of the iPhone. With strong support via iTunes, it is so easy to navigate the app store on your phone or on your PC, download and remove apps, back up all your content, and so on. Align this with a smart marketing campaign, and you can see why the iPhone continues to appeal.

Other manufacturers have seen the benefit of offering a centralised, cohesive suite of services, and in the last year we have seen an explosion of rival app stores, with BlackBerry, Nokia and Samsung all delivering a centralised point where applications can easily be downloaded and installed on to a mobile phone. Yet none of these have so far matched the iPhone experience. If anything, the closest competitor to the iPhone would be devices running on Android. The device styles between the iPhone and Android phones are pretty similar, with most Android devices coming in the familiar tablet PC look, and Android devices also bring a smooth, flowing user interface, which offers tight integration to online services, particularly the Google suite of products. On top of this, there is the Android market. The closest rival to the Apple App Store, the Android market has thousands of apps available, and the number is increasing by the day. As well as applications, you can easily sync your content with online services, so pictures and contacts can be accessed whenever you need. Once a PC service to rival the iTunes access to the App Store is available, Android will truly be in a position to bring the battle to Apple.

But the battle is not just between manufacturers, as the networks too have a vested interest in ensuring customer loyalty by offering a brand of services that will keep customers focussing as much on the network they use as on the manufacturer they choose. And that brings us to the big announcement by Vodafone this week, with the launch of Vodafone 360, a brand new set of internet services for both mobile and PC, which will radically change the way people can access content on the move.

Vodafone 360 will eventually be available on all the internet devices Vodafone sell, but for now it is restricted to the Nokia N85, Nokia 6730, and two new and exclusive to Vodafone products, the VF360 H1 and VF360 M1, which are manufactured by Samsung. These products run on a new operating system, called LiMo, which is based around the Linux setup. We will be offering in depth reviews of both these phones in the next few days.

What the Vodafone 360 service will bring is a total integration of your handset, and online internet services. The main hub of Vodafone 360 is a service called Vodafone People, which allows you to store all your contacts from your phone, along with contacts from your instant messaging service, such as MSN, or Google Talk, along with friends on Facebook and followers on Twitter. All content from the handset will be backed up online, automatically, which is an important point because we know how lazy people are at backing up their device. So, if your phone is lost or stolen, or damaged beyond repair, you don’t lose those important photos, names, or numbers.

Alongside this, Vodafone 360 will also have a huge app store available, from which it will be possible to download a whole host of applications and games for your particular device, many of them, Vodafone say, will be free of charge. A nice touch to all this is it will be possible to register for a Vodafone 360 account even if you are not a Vodafone handset user, so you can join in with friends who are already registered.

It is clear that times are changing, and the way we keep in touch is developing rapidly, and we are right now living through a telecoms evolution that is happening at high speed, and in a short period of time will forever alter the way we keep in touch with those who matter most to us. And right in the middle of this battle are telecoms giants such as Nokia, Apple, Vodafone, HTC, Symbian and Android, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and Windows Mobile, all trying to muscle in with services that integrate more effectively with online internet services.

As the battle continues, it is we the consumer who stand to gain the most, riding the wave of mobile innovation, and enjoying the benefits this brings. The ride is going to be a blast, and it will be interesting to look back in 18 months time, just to see how much will have changed.