Vodafone UK Handset Buyer Resigns

The head of Vodafone UK's mobile handset buying division, Chris Edwards resigned earlier this week, apparently without notice. Vodafone confirmed Edwards' departure to the UK trade magazine, Mobile Today but would not comment further.

Earlier this year he lead a meeting with several major handset manufacturers and explained that the company would shrink its handset portfolio and was looking for a more standardised, Vodafone-style approach to the user interface across multiple brands.

He was also a strong proponent of embedding services into handsets and focused largely on 3G devices. Last year he took responsibility for Sony Ericsson's worldwide account. A successor is not known, but sources said Edwards had an able deputy in Laurent Bouvier, head of purchasing for Vodafone UK.

The Group recently named former O2 UK and Motorola Europe handset boss, Vik Patel to lead the international buying division, which was looking to consolidate the various national buying divisions into a single body.

On the web: Mobile Today

Posted to the site on 21st May 2009