Sendo

Sendo was a British manufacturer and supplier of mobile phones founded in 1998 and based in Birmingham.[1] The company went into administration in June 2005 and its technology was bought by Motorola.[5]

For Tibetan village, see Sêndo. For Vietnamese retailer, see Sendo.vn.

Sendo
TypePublic
Founded1998[1]
FounderHugh Brogan[2]
Defunct29 June 2005 (2005-06-29)
Headquarters
Birmingham, England[3]
Key people
Hugh Brogan (CEO), Robert Pocknell (Group General Counsel)[4]
Number of employees
300[1]

The company specialised in low-cost handsets aimed primarily at the pay-as-you-go markets and also high-end Symbian smartphones.[6]

History

Sendo was created in 1998 by mobile phone experts from Philips and Motorola.[1] In February 2001, Microsoft announced a partnership, in which Microsoft bought $12m of Sendo shares (10%[1]) 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, was delivered.[7] Sendo manage to ship an SDK,[8] 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[9] and opted to go with Symbian[10] 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,[11] manufactured by HTC as the HTC Canary, the first Windows Mobile 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.[12]

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.[13] In June 2006 Sendo then sued Orange.[11]

In September 2003, Microsoft and Sendo dropped their suits and announced that Microsoft had given up its shares in Sendo.[4]

In 2004, Sendo sold 5 million devices[2] and, along with other major mobile phone manufacturer, showed interest in using Nvidia's GoForce graphic chips.[14]

In March 2005, Sendo made an objection to the European Commission regarding Ericsson and their patent and licence management after being sued.[15]

At the time Motorola took over the developers and their patents, they held 50 valid patents and had 40 waiting for approval.[14]

Models

Further reading
  • Magee, Michael ‘Mike’ (17 February 2003). "Sendo, Microsoft & HTC — the mysteries just grow: Times are all wrong on the Smartphone front". The Inquirer. Retrieved 28 October 2011.

References
  1. Arnold, James (20 March 2002). "Sendo: Britain's mobile maverick". BBC. Retrieved 16 January 2011.
  2. Klaß, Christian (29 June 2005). "Sendo am Ende? Motorola übernimmt Entwickler (Update)" (in German). Golem.de. Retrieved 15 January 2011.
  3. "Industry's mobile hopes". BBC. 23 March 2001. Retrieved 16 January 2011.
  4. Pakalski, Ingo (13 September 2001). "Microsoft: Keine Beteiligung mehr an Handy-Hersteller Sendo" (in German). Golem.de. Retrieved 15 January 2011.
  5. Kewney, Guy (30 June 2005), "Mobile", Sendo: why it went titsup — Motorola’s Sendo takeover: Takeover may give Motorola a higher European profile, UK: The Register, archived from the original on 20 October 2011, retrieved 28 October 2011
  6. "Sendo X". Mobile Gazette. 28 October 2003. Retrieved 16 January 2011.
  7. Ihlenfeld, Jens (23 July 2001). "Microsoft beteiligt sich an Handy-Hersteller" (in German). Golem.de. Retrieved 15 January 2011.
  8. Orlowski, Andrew (10 September 2002), "Personal", Sendo ships self-destructing Stinker phone SDK — Mission: Improbable, UK: The Register, archived from the original on 13 September 2012, retrieved 28 October 2011.
  9. Orlowski, Andrew (21 November 2002), "Personal", What sank Sendo’s Stinker?: Back to the chalkboard for Microsoft phones, UK: The Register, archived from the original on 18 October 2011, retrieved 28 October 2011.
  10. Cullen, Drew (21 November 2002), "Mobile", Sendo junks MS smartphone, joins Nokia camp: Joins Nokia Series 60 club, UK: The Register, archived from the original on 17 October 2011, retrieved 28 October 2011.
  11. Donath, Andreas (6 June 2003). "Sendo verklagt Orange UK wegen Smartphone SVP" (in German). Golem.de. Retrieved 15 January 2011.
  12. Orlowski, Andrew (6 January 2003), "Mobile", Microsoft's masterplan to screw phone partner — full details: Sendo in the clowns, UK: The Register, archived from the original on 20 October 2011, retrieved 28 October 2011.
  13. Smith, Anthony ‘Tony’ (13 September 2004), "Financial News", Sendo, MS settle: Microsoft settles Sendo 'tech theft' lawsuit: Microsoft settles Sendo 'tech theft' lawsuit — Both sides 'happy', UK: The Register, archived from the original on 20 October 2011, retrieved 28 October 2011
  14. Klaß, Christian (14 February 2005). "GoForce 4800: Nvidia poliert Handy-Grafikchip auf" (in German). Golem.de. Retrieved 15 January 2011.
  15. Pakalski, Ingo (24 March 2005). "Sendo beschwert sich wegen Ericsson bei der EU" (in German). Golem.de. Retrieved 15 January 2011.
  16. Pakalski, Ingo (28 November 2001). "Dualband-Handy Sendo J520 mit WAP 1.2.1" (in German). Golem.de. Retrieved 15 January 2011.
  17. Pakalski, Ingo (19 February 2003). "Sendo stellt Klapp-Handy M550 vor (Update)" (in German). Golem.de. Retrieved 15 January 2011.
  18. Pakalski, Ingo (26 February 2004). "Zwei neue Mobiltelefone von Sendo für Einsteiger" (in German). Golem.de. Retrieved 15 January 2011.
  19. Donath, Andreas (26 February 2001). "Wandlungsfähiges preiswertes Einsteigerhandy von Sendo" (in German). Golem.de. Retrieved 15 January 2011.
  20. "Sendo SV663 (S633)". Mobile Gazette. 3 October 2004. Retrieved 16 January 2011.
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