Social aggregation meets app store, with support from Samsung and Nokia at launch.
Those well-sourced rumours in the UK press earlier this week were, yes, well-sourced. Vodafone has unveiled its new Vodafone 360 initiative, which it describes as "a suite of innovative, new internet services" for mobile and PC.
Social networking is a big focus, drawing on Vodafone's acquisition of social contacts firm Zyb last year. The service includes a new 'connected address book' - Vodafone People - which draws in contacts from users' phones, Facebook, Google Talk and Windows Live Messenger, with Twitter to be added soon.
The service will also aggregate social media, including status updates and new content from social networks - mirroring the attempts being made by Motorola with its MOTOBLUR Android interface. Users can choose to share their location and content (photos for example) with friends.
However, mobile entertainment is also a big part of Vodafone 360, which will include apps, games, music and mapping services available for mobiles but also PC and Macs. The operator says a catalogue of more than 1,000 apps will be available at launch via something called the Vodafone Shop.
One intriguing aspect: non-Vodafone users will be able to access parts of Vodafone 360 too, although details of exactly what and how have yet to be revealed.
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Samsung is on board as the launch partner with two handsets that will be exclusive to Vodafone, using the LiMo Linux-based OS. Unveiled today was the Vodafone 360 H1 handset, with a 3.5-inch multi-touch screen, 16GB of memory, Wi-Fi and a five-megapixel camera.
This, and Samsung's still-secret second 360 handset, will be available in eight European countries by the end of this year: Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the UK. Other countries will follow in 2010, including India, France and Russia.
However, Vodafone says that four of Nokia's Symbian smartphones will come preloaded with the 360 service at launch too, while "part or all of the service" will be downloadable to more than 100 other existing handsets.
“Vodafone 360 is the first service of its kind to offer customers the benefits of a truly integrated mobile internet experience that gathers all their contacts and content, all around them, in one place,” said Pieter Knook, Director of Internet Services at Vodafone Group.
“The beauty of Vodafone 360 is that all the services work together and they are easy to use."
