Telecompaper

Vodafone unveiled an overhaul of its internet portal services, under the name Vodafone 360. The main element of the new service is called Vodafone People, a connected address book. Vodafone People automatically syncs all contacts from a customer's phone, Facebook, Windows Live Messenger and Google Talk profiles, and will soon also include Twitter, Hyves and studiVZ. Customers will be able to organise and share the contact and messaging information, as well as share music, photos and their location information with friends. The service is automatically backed up and synchronised, regularly and wirelessly, between the mobile and PC or Mac. All contact updates, e-mails, photos and conversation history or settings changes made either at home or when on the move are saved. In addition to Vodafoen People, Vodafone promised a "wide range of apps, games, music and mapping services" for Vodafone 360. The new online platform will be marketed with Vodafone's new brand expression, 'power to you', which is "focused on putting the customer in control and enabling simple and easy to manage communications, both mobile and fixed", the mobile operator said. Vodafone has also designed two of its own handsets to promote the use of Vodafone 360. The Vodafone 360 H1 by Samsung comes with a 3.5-inch touch OLED screen, 16GB memory, Wi-Fi, talk time of up to 400 minutes (3G) and a 5 megapixel camera. It will be followed shortly by a second Samsung handset, offering customers a range of colours and price points. The phones run on Vodafone's proprietary user interface, based on LiMo, and include Vodafone's 'proximity algorithm', bringing the most frequently contacted people closer to the front. At launch another four Nokia Symbian smartphones will come pre-loaded with Vodafone 360 and part or all of the service will be downloadable to over 100 popular phones. In the coming months Vodafone will be making the service available through as wide a selection of handsets and operating systems from multiple manufacturers as possible. Vodafone 360 will launch before Christmas in Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the UK. Launches in a number of other countries are planned for 2010, including India, Turkey, South Africa, New Zealand and Romania and in France through SFR, through MTS in Russia, and through Vodafone Hutchison Australia.