Vodafone Snubs Nokia 3G Handsets

Vodafone has snubbed Nokia as a supplier of its 3G handsets, according to a report in the Financial Times. The newspaper reported that Vodafone is in exclusive talks with Japan's Sanyo and South Korea's Samsung. The move would follow on from the launch of the company's Live! internet services which generally used handsets from the second tier suppliers, such as Panasonic and Sharp.

Sanyo is an existing supplier to Vodafone in Japan, where handset specifications are more often set by the network. This contrasts with the Nokia dominated European market where Nokia designs the handsets then offers them to the networks.

It may well be that Vodafone has been disappointed with the sole 3G handset from Nokia, which lags the market behind the likes of NEC and Motorola in shipping WCDMA handsets.

Vodafone is certainly pushing Nokia as a supplier for its Live! service. Nokia recently said at a London games conference that they would not start shipping handsets that are fully OMA compliant in bulk until the second half of next year. Vodafone is however known to be wanting to push forward with OMA compliance early next year, as that enables the company to start deploying a range of Digital Rights Managed (DRM) services to its subscribers. The delay in launching full OMA handsets could be driving Vodafone towards other manufacturers.

"You can't ignore Nokia because it is by far and away the phone that everyone wants," the Financial Times reported Charles Dunstone, chief executive of Carphone Warehouse, as saying.

"But if Nokia does not have a good competitive 3G phone by this time next year, this could start to cause some real erosion of their market share."

Posted to the site on 9th September 2003