Sendo Ltd. has provided details of its first smart phone, the Sendo X, using Symbian Ltd.'s OS and Series 60 software from
Nokia Corp.
"We are currently testing the phone with a number of operators and will begin shipping it before the end of the year," Marijke
van Hooren, a Sendo spokeswoman, said Wednesday.
Van Hooren declined to provide pricing information, saying that carriers will set their own prices and these are likely to
vary.
Sendo, which relies largely on minority-stake holder CCT Telecom Holdings of China to manufacture its phones, designs and
sells unbranded mobile phones to operators such as KPN Mobile NV and Vodafone Group PLC, according to the spokeswoman.
The Sendo X smart phone, which weighs 120 grams, includes a 176 x 220 pixel TFT (thin film transistor) display with up to
65,536 colors and an integrated VGA (video graphics array) still/video camera with flash. Other software features include
J2ME (Java 2 Micro Edition), RealNetworks Inc.'s RealOne Player with H.263, MPEG4 and RealVideo formats, which allow users
to watch film clips, music videos or news.
As for connectivity, the tri-band Sendo X supports all three GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication) frequency bands
used worldwide, in addition to GPRS (General Packet Radio Service). Bluetooth, USB (Universal Serial Bus) and infrared interfaces
are also included.
The phone is compatible with Symbian and Series 60 applications. It has 64MB of flash memory of which around 32MB are available
to users. Users can expand the memory with MMC (Multimedia Card) and SD (Secure Digital) cards.
Optional accessories include a pocket-size keyboard that unfolds to offer a full QWERTY keyboard and a Bluetooth headset.
Sendo X replaces an earlier smart phone, which the Birmingham, England, company developed jointly with Microsoft Corp. based
on the U.S. software giant's Windows Mobile software for Smartphones, but never delivered.
In November, Sendo dropped Microsoft for Symbian and Nokia after U.K. mobile phone operator Orange Personal Communications
Services Ltd. launched a smart phone based on Microsoft's software but made by Taiwan's High Tech Computer Corp. (HTC).
In December Sendo sued Microsoft, charging that the software maker had a secret plan to plunder the U.K. smart phone maker
and obtain technology necessary to enter and ultimately dominate the market created by the convergence of mobile phones and
computers.
Microsoft filed a countersuit against Sendo in February, charging that Sendo "diverted human and financial resources from
its work on the Microsoft Smartphone to design and develop a rival smart phone, the Nokia Series 60."
The companies remain in litigation, van Hooren said.
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