NEWS
Vodafone has announced this year will see the launch of its own-brand handsets.
The operator has inked a five-year deal with manufacturer Huawei to produce a 3G Vodafone-branded handset for launch this September in Europe.
Vodafone is the only one of the big four UK operators yet to sell handsets under its own banner. O2, Orange and T-Mobile all currently offer own-branded business handsets made by OEM HTC running on the Windows Mobile operating system.
Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin hit out earlier this week at handset prices, saying the €50 difference between 2G and 3G handsets is preventing consumers from making the switch to third generation technology. According to the operator, the agreement with the OEM will now help it cut such costs.
Vodafone has also announced a deal with Google, which will see the search giant integrated in the Vodafone Live! portal.
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1. anonymous
At Last! Someone in the Mobile Comms. industry has realised that phones should be cheaper! I'm a pay as you go customer, have been for many years, and always will be, and to be honest, I am treated as a 2nd class citizen by my operator (Orange) because if I want the new shiny model, I've got to pay through the nose for it, but it'd be 'free' on contract!
3G won't work unless they can dupe people into buying the handsets.... I certainly won't be dipping into my pocket in a hurry!