Sendo was a British manufacturer and supplier of

mobile phone A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable telephone that allows users to make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while moving within a designated telephone service area, unlike fixed-location phones ( landline phones). This rad ...

s founded in 1998 and based in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

. It specialised in low-cost handsets aimed primarily at the pay-as-you-go markets and also high-end

Symbian Symbian is a discontinued mobile operating system (OS) and computing platform designed for smartphones. It was originally developed as a proprietary software OS for personal digital assistants in 1998 by the Symbian Ltd. consortium. Symbian OS ...

smartphones. The company went into administration in 2005 and its technology was bought by

Motorola Motorola, Inc. () was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois. It was founded by brothers Paul and Joseph Galvin in 1928 and had been named Motorola since 1947. Many of Motorola's products had been ...

History

Sendo was created in 1998 by mobile phone experts from

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), simply branded Philips, is a Dutch multinational health technology company that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, its world headquarters have been situated in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarter ...

and Motorola. In February 2001,

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

announced a partnership, in which Microsoft bought $12m of Sendo shares (10%) and a seat on the board. Sendo was to be Microsoft's "go to market partner" for the Stinger smartphone platform that became ''

Smartphone 2002 Windows Mobile is a discontinued mobile operating system developed by Microsoft for smartphones and personal digital assistants (PDA). Designed to be the portable equivalent of the Windows desktop OS in the emerging Mobile device, mobile/port ...

''. Microsoft was to deliver code for the StingerOS by June and the first prototype, the Sendo Z100, was delivered. Sendo manage to ship an SDK, but by December not enough code had been delivered by Microsoft and, without any products to sell, Sendo couldn't raise any money from sales or venture capitalists. Sendo dropped Microsoft and opted to go with Symbian but eventually went bankrupt. Under the deal, if Sendo was declared insolvent "Microsoft would obtain an irrevocable, royalty free licence to use Sendo's Z100 intellectual property, including rights to make, use, or copy the Sendo Smartphone to create other Smartphones and to, most importantly for Microsoft, sublicense those rights to third parties." A product based on the Sendo Z100 was released while Sendo was still solvent by Orange as the

Orange SPV 100 Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower ** Orange juice *Orange (colour), the color of an orange fruit, occurs between red and yellow in the vi ...

, manufactured by

HTC HTC Corporation ( zh, t=宏達國際電子股份有限公司, p=Hóngdá Guójì Diànzǐ Gǔfèn Yǒuxiàn Gōngsī, first=t), or High Tech Computer Corporation (abbreviated and trading as HTC), is a Taiwanese consumer electronics corporatio ...

as the HTC Canary, the first

Windows Mobile Windows Mobile is a discontinued mobile operating system developed by Microsoft for smartphones and personal digital assistants (PDA). Designed to be the portable equivalent of the Windows desktop OS in the emerging Mobile device, mobile/port ...

smartphone. As a consequence Sendo sued Microsoft in December 2002, alleging it stole proprietary technology and trade secrets and gave these to HTC enabling HTC and itself to launch into the mobile phone market. Microsoft denied the allegations and in February 2003 filed a counter suit alleging breach of contract. A trial was scheduled for early 2005 but an out of court settlement was reached in September 2004, in which there was a "monetary component" and Microsoft giving up its stake of Sendo. In June 2006 Sendo then sued Orange. In September 2003, Microsoft and Sendo dropped their suits and announced that Microsoft had given up its shares in Sendo. In 2004, Sendo sold 5 million devices and, along with other major mobile phone manufacturer, showed interest in using

Nvidia Nvidia Corporation ( ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and incorporated in Delaware. Founded in 1993 by Jensen Huang (president and CEO), Chris Malachowsky, and Curti ...

GoForce The Nvidia GoForce was a line of chipsets that was used mainly in handheld devices such as PDAs and mobile phones. Nvidia acquired graphics display processor firm MediaQ in 2003, and rebranded the division as GoForce. It has since been replaced b ...

graphic chips. In March 2005, Sendo made an objection to the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

regarding

Ericsson (), commonly known as Ericsson (), is a Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. Ericsson has been a major contributor to the development of the telecommunications industry and is one ...

and their patent and licence management after being sued. Sendo went into administration in June 2005 and its technology was bought by

. At the time Motorola took over the developers and their patents, they held 50 valid patents and had 40 waiting for approval.

Models

Sendo D800 Sendo was a British manufacturer and supplier of mobile phones founded in 1998 and based in Birmingham. It specialised in low-cost handsets aimed primarily at the pay-as-you-go markets and also high-end Symbian smartphones. The company went in ...

**WOXTER D800 (Hong Kong) *

Sendo A820 Sendo was a British manufacturer and supplier of mobile phones founded in 1998 and based in Birmingham. It specialised in low-cost handsets aimed primarily at the prepaid mobile phone, pay-as-you-go markets and also high-end Symbian platform, Sym ...

**WOXTER S100/S100i (Hong Kong) *

Sendo J520 Sendo was a British manufacturer and supplier of mobile phones founded in 1998 and based in Birmingham. It specialised in low-cost handsets aimed primarily at the pay-as-you-go markets and also high-end Symbian smartphones. The company went i ...

**WOXTER B110/B110i (Hong Kong) *

Sendo K1 Sendo was a British manufacturer and supplier of mobile phones founded in 1998 and based in Birmingham. It specialised in low-cost handsets aimed primarily at the pay-as-you-go markets and also high-end Symbian smartphones. The company went in ...

**WOXTER K1 (Hong Kong) *

Sendo M550 The M550 (sold as the M551 in North America) was a phone produced by the now defunct Sendo. It is a compact color mobile phone which features a smaller monochrome screen on the front. It features WAP support with color pictures and three games: S ...

Sendo M551 The M550 (sold as the M551 in North America) was a phone produced by the now defunct Sendo. It is a compact color mobile phone which features a smaller monochrome screen on the front. It features WAP support with color pictures and three games: S ...

(North America) ** Tevion MD 7300 (Germany) **WOXTER G300 (Hong Kong) *

Sendo M570 Sendo was a British manufacturer and supplier of mobile phones founded in 1998 and based in Birmingham. It specialised in low-cost handsets aimed primarily at the prepaid mobile phone, pay-as-you-go markets and also high-end Symbian platform, Sym ...

**WOXTER G350 (Hong Kong) * Sendo P600 **WOXTER P600 (Hong Kong) * Sendo S1 **WOXTER S1/S1M (Hong Kong) * Sendo S200 ** WOXTER V400/V400i (Hong Kong) * Sendo S251 **WOXTER F600 (Hong Kong) * Sendo S300 **WOXTER T100 (Hong Kong) *

Sendo S330 Sendo was a British manufacturer and supplier of mobile phones founded in 1998 and based in Birmingham. It specialised in low-cost handsets aimed primarily at the pay-as-you-go markets and also high-end Symbian smartphones. The company went in ...

**WOXTER T160 (Hong Kong) * Sendo S360 **WOXTER S360 (Hong Kong) * Sendo S600 **WOXTER S600 (Hong Kong) * Sendo SV663 ** Sendo S633 **WOXTER S670 (Hong Kong) * Sendo X **WOXTER F200 (Hong Kong) * Sendo X2 (canceled) **WOXTER F250 (Hong Kong) * Sendo Z100 (canceled) **WOXTER Z100 (Hong Kong)

References

{{Motorola Defunct mobile phone manufacturers Defunct companies of the United Kingdom Defunct companies based in Birmingham, West Midlands Manufacturing companies based in Birmingham, West Midlands British companies established in 1998 Electronics companies disestablished in 2005 Electronics companies established in 1998 British companies disestablished in 2005 1998 establishments in England 2005 establishments in England 2005 mergers and acquisitions

History

Models

Further reading

References