Sendo was a British manufacturer and supplier of

mobile phone A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whil ...

s founded in 1998 and based in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

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

Motorola Motorola, Inc. () was an American Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, United States. After having lost $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009, the company split into two independent p ...

. The company specialised in low-cost handsets aimed primarily at the

pay-as-you-go Pay as you go or PAYG may refer to: Finance * Pay-as-you-go tax, or pay-as-you-earn tax * Pay-as-you-go pension plan * PAYGO, the practice in the US of financing expenditures with current funds rather than borrowing * PAUG, a structured financia ...

markets and also high-end

Symbian Symbian is a discontinued mobile operating system A mobile operating system is an operating system for mobile phones, tablets, smartwatches, smartglasses, or other non-laptop personal mobile computing devices. While computers such as typic ...

smartphones.

History

Sendo was created in 1998 by mobile phone experts from

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters i ...

and Motorola. In February 2001,

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

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''. Microsoft was to deliver code for the StingerOS by June and the first prototype, the

Sendo Z100 Sendo Z100 is a Tri-band phone by Sendo, designed in 2002 and never launched as Sendo sued Microsoft. Background After Microsoft bought shares of Sendo, they started together to develop the new devices operating system called Stinger. Microsoft ...

, 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, manufactured by

HTC HTC Corporation ( zh, t=宏達國際電子股份有限公司, s=宏达国际电子股份有限公司, p=Hóngdá Guójì Diànzǐ Gǔfèn Yǒuxiàn Gōngsī, first=t) or High Tech Computer Corporation, (literally ''Hongda International Electron ...

as the

HTC Canary HTC Canary is a smartphone released in November 2002 in Europe and China by the providers Orange and China Mobile, respectively. It was notable for being the first smartphone to run Windows Mobile. Specifications Manufacturer: HTC Distributor: Or ...

, the first

Windows Mobile Windows Mobile is a discontinued family of mobile operating systems developed by Microsoft for smartphones and personal digital assistants. Its origin dated back to Windows CE in 1996, though Windows Mobile itself first appeared in 2000 as Pock ...

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

. 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 CorporationOfficially written as NVIDIA and stylized in its logo as VIDIA with the lowercase "n" the same height as the uppercase "VIDIA"; formerly stylized as VIDIA with a large italicized lowercase "n" on products from the mid 1990s to ...

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 by ...

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

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...

regarding

Ericsson (lit. "Telephone Stock Company of LM Ericsson"), commonly known as Ericsson, is a Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company headquartered in Stockholm. The company sells infrastructure, software, and services in informat ...

and their patent and licence management after being sued. 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. The company went into administration in June 2005 and its technology was bought by Motorola. The company specialised in low-cost handsets aim ...

Sendo A820 Sendo was a British manufacturer and supplier of mobile phones founded in 1998 and based in Birmingham. The company went into administration in June 2005 and its technology was bought by Motorola. The company specialised in low-cost handsets aim ...

Sendo J520 Sendo was a British manufacturer and supplier of mobile phones founded in 1998 and based in Birmingham. The company went into administration in June 2005 and its technology was bought by Motorola. The company specialised in low-cost handsets aim ...

Sendo K1 Sendo was a British manufacturer and supplier of mobile phones founded in 1998 and based in Birmingham. The company went into administration in June 2005 and its technology was bought by Motorola. The company specialised in low-cost handsets aim ...

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: Sp ...

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: Sp ...

(in America) **

Tevion MD 7300 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: Sp ...

(in Germany) **WOXTER P100 (in Hong Kong) *

Sendo M570 Sendo was a British manufacturer and supplier of mobile phones founded in 1998 and based in Birmingham. The company went into administration in June 2005 and its technology was bought by Motorola. The company specialised in low-cost handsets aim ...

**WOXTER P150 (in Hong Kong) *

Sendo P600 Sendo was a British manufacturer and supplier of mobile phones founded in 1998 and based in Birmingham. The company went into administration in June 2005 and its technology was bought by Motorola. The company specialised in low-cost handsets aim ...

Sendo S1 Sendo was a British manufacturer and supplier of mobile phones founded in 1998 and based in Birmingham. The company went into administration in June 2005 and its technology was bought by Motorola. The company specialised in low-cost handsets aim ...

* Sendo S200 *

Sendo S251 Sendo was a British manufacturer and supplier of mobile phones founded in 1998 and based in Birmingham. The company went into administration in June 2005 and its technology was bought by Motorola. The company specialised in low-cost handsets aim ...

* Sendo S300 **WOXTER R100 (in Hong Kong) * Sendo S360 *

Sendo S330 Sendo was a British manufacturer and supplier of mobile phones founded in 1998 and based in Birmingham. The company went into administration in June 2005 and its technology was bought by Motorola. The company specialised in low-cost handsets aim ...

**WOXTER R110 (in Hong Kong) *

Sendo S600 Sendo was a British manufacturer and supplier of mobile phones founded in 1998 and based in Birmingham. The company went into administration in June 2005 and its technology was bought by Motorola. The company specialised in low-cost handsets aim ...

Sendo SV663 Sendo was a British manufacturer and supplier of mobile phones founded in 1998 and based in Birmingham. The company went into administration in June 2005 and its technology was bought by Motorola. The company specialised in low-cost handsets aim ...

Sendo S633 Sendo was a British manufacturer and supplier of mobile phones founded in 1998 and based in Birmingham. The company went into administration in June 2005 and its technology was bought by Motorola. The company specialised in low-cost handsets aim ...

Sendo X The Sendo X was Sendo's first Series 60 based "''high-end''" phone, developed after Sendo switched from the Microsoft to Symbian / Series 60 platforms. Among the unique features of the Sendo X, one was the ability for users to download new firmwa ...

**WOXTER F100 (in Hong Kong) *

Sendo X2 Sendo was a British manufacturer and supplier of mobile phones founded in 1998 and based in Birmingham. The company went into administration in June 2005 and its technology was bought by Motorola. The company specialised in low-cost handsets aim ...

(canceled) **WOXTER F150 (in Hong Kong) *

(canceled) **WOXTER N100 (in 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 1999 Companies disestablished in 2005

History

Models

Further reading

References