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By editorial@silicon.com, 25 October 2002 07:00

COMMENT Sexy Orange, sensible Vodafone. Sound about right? Certainly it is rather glib to try to sum up entire companies in such a way and, many would argue, hardly accurate in this case. Let us explain. Earlier this week Orange unveiled its SPV, a sleek handset that is the first to use the Microsoft Smartphone 2002 operating system. It was quite an event, full of the polished marketing and bragging - "We're changing the world!" - which both Orange and Microsoft are world leaders at. And we liked the product, which happens to be manufactured by HTC in Taiwan, the company making other design goodies the iPaq from HP and xda from O2. Last night, Vodafone - hardly hiding its light beneath a bushel either - made its own Big Splash. It isn't quite betting its business on Vodafone live! but it is still a major play. The idea is that it will offer content based on all manner of protocols - WAP, SMS, MMS, IM and GPRS for delivery - with the focus not on the acronyms but ease-of-use and brands people will know and pay for. We also like what it is doing. So, lots of liking going on but who gets the bigger cigar? It is still early days. November will see these initiatives kick off in earnest. Success for Orange will mean selling a couple of hundred thousand SPV handsets by this time next year and raising the user expectation bar. Microsoft will want the kudos, minimal problems and doors into other hardware houses and networks. Vodafone, on the other hand, is looking at establishing a reputation across a dozen or more countries for a straightforward platform for non-voice services that consumers like and understand and are willing to pay for. Sounds similar to Orange, certainly in terms of downloading content, but without the Microsoft love-in - yet. It wants to take the big handset companies with it and set itself up nicely for the wider introduction of 3G. Dare we say it - the Orange offering is more interesting, Vodafone's is likely to be wider reaching. Sexy Orange, sensible Vodafone. But here's the real bottom line - they both realise revenue from non-voice services has to increase and they have shaken themselves up enough to get the ball rolling properly.