Replacing the older version called Vodafone Live!, the Vodafone 360 has been unveiled in the Samsung mobile devices, which converges a users’ contacts and social networks accounts. It was recently made available to eight European countries, and currently tops the market when it comes to putting together the contacts from the mobile device, for SMS messages and those from the social networking services like Google Talk and Facebook. Such address book is called the Vodafone People.
While Vodafone reported it is on its last stages of developing a preloaded version for four Nokia handsets, industry analysts were quick to say that Vodafone 360 has made communication through the internet a much easier means using mobile phones.
Forrester Research analyst Ian Fogg told BBC news that the Vodafone should prove a tough competitor for Apple, Motorola, HTC and Palm which have dominated the handsets offering social networking features. Particularly because it is not limited to Vodafone customers alone; instead, the services can be used by once Vodafone users after they have switched providers.
Also, the elements of the service can work well with customers using a PC or a Mac, and the service opens use for over 1,000 applications as well.
This move by Vodafone was seen by the industry as a timely and smart decision, considering that smartphones are purchased for the applications they offer. In fact, Apple’s App Store with over 65,000 applications reports close to 2 billion downloads since it was released. Google, Nokia and Blackberry quickly followed suit by opening their applications store using their operating systems, while the Microsoft product is in its last stages of development.
Vodafone is seen to be evolving as a network operator now offering applications, particularly because a large part of its 315 million subscribers will no doubt purchase the Vodafone 360.
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