Sendo jumps Microsoft ship, signs on with Nokia

Just two weeks after launching its Smartphone, Microsoft has had its first vendor defection. It’s first manufacturing partner, Britain’s Sendo has canceled its licensing contract with Microsoft and signed on as a Nokia Series 60 developer, leaving Sendo’s first shipment of Microsoft Smartphones in the warehouse.

Sendo remained mum about its reasons for the suddenly cutting ties with its two-year partner, saying only that it could not discuss the situation for legal reasons. The vendors first smartphone, the Z100 was scheduled for release by the end of the year, but Sendo said now that it is working with the Series 60 platform and Symbian’s wireless operating system, it’s first smart handsets won’t ship until the second half of 2003.

“It was not an easy decision for us to make,” a Sendo spokeswoman said. “We were not far from shipping the first handsets, but we had to decide if this was the course we wanted to take, and we decided against it.”

Microsoft officially launched the Windows-based Smartphone OS last month, after more than three years of development under the code-name Stinger. While Sendo is a small specialty vendor, the loss of which won’t affect Microsoft’s overall deployment strategy, the news is still a black eye for the U.S. software giant. Sendo was the most publicized of Microsoft’s vendor partners since it became one of the first manufacturers to partner with Microsoft two years ago. In fact, Sendo manufactured the first Smartphone prototype for the GSM World Congress in Cannes in 2000.

“Obviously we’re disappointed they canceled,” said Vince Mendillo, director of worldwide product marketing for Microsoft Mobile Devices. “We’re disappointed they weren’t able to commercialize the product.”

The damage to Microsoft, however, is more one of perception than reality, Mendillo said. Most of Microsoft’s contracts are directly with carriers, which agree to use the Smartphone platform and then select a vendor to supply the handsets. While Microsoft would prefer to keep Sendo as a licensee, Mendillo doesn’t anticipate Microsoft would lose any business because of their defection.

Microsoft announced last month its first major carrier deal with Orange. The carrier has started selling HTC-manufactured Smartphones in the UK, and AT&T Wireless has agreed to launch the platform in 2003, though it has not named a vendor.