Sendo

For Tibetan village, see Sêndo.
Sendo
Public
Founded 1998[1]
Founder Hugh Brogan[2]
Defunct 29 June 2005
Headquarters Birmingham, England[3]
Key people
 Hugh Brogan (CEO), Robert Pocknell (Group General Counsel)[4]
Number of employees
 300[1]

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]

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 1999 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 license 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 gave up shares in Sendo.[4]

In 2004, Sendo sold 5 million devices[2] and was mentioned with some other major mobile phone manufacturers showing interest in using Nvidia's GoForce graphic chips.[2]

In March 2005, Sendo object by the European Commission against Ericsson about their patent and license management after being sued.[14]

At the time Motorola overtook the developers and their patents, they held 50 valid patents and had 40 waiting for approval.[2]

Models

Further reading

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Arnold, James (20 March 2002). "Sendo: Britain's mobile maverick". BBC. Retrieved 16 January 2011.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 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. ↑ 4.0 4.1 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 2011-10-28
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 "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 3 September 2011, retrieved 2011-10-28.
  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 2011-10-28 .
  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 2011-10-28.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 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 2011-10-28.
  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 2011-10-28
  14. ↑ Pakalski, Ingo (24 March 2005). "Sendo beschwert sich wegen Ericsson bei der EU" (in German). Golem.de. Retrieved 15 January 2011.
  15. ↑ Pakalski, Ingo (28 November 2001). "Dualband-Handy Sendo J520 mit WAP 1.2.1" (in German). Golem.de. Retrieved 15 January 2011.
  16. ↑ Pakalski, Ingo (19 February 2003). "Sendo stellt Klapp-Handy M550 vor (Update)" (in German). Golem.de. Retrieved 15 January 2011.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Pakalski, Ingo (26 February 2004). "Zwei neue Mobiltelefone von Sendo für Einsteiger" (in German). Golem.de. Retrieved 15 January 2011.
  18. ↑ Donath, Andreas (26 February 2001). "Wandlungsfähiges preiswertes Einsteigerhandy von Sendo" (in German). Golem.de. Retrieved 15 January 2011.