Vodafone scraps LiMo-based 360 handsets

Vodafone has dropped the two LiMo-based Samsung handsets that underpinned its 360 social aggregation platform and has scrapped plans for a third 360 handset.

The mobile operator is discontinuing the H1 and M1 phones and will no longer be bringing out Samsung's H2 phone, Vodafone announced on Friday. The H1 and M1 were the only two handsets to be launched in the UK that ran the LiMo Foundation's Linux-derived software, and the H2 would have done the same.

There are more than 50 mid-market LiMo handsets on sale around the world, mostly in Asia. The LiMo mobile Linux industry group was established in 2006 with the aim of creating an open-source platform for mobile phones — an outcome that has now come to pass in the more popular form of Google's Android.

Vodafone 360, a suite of internet services that aggregates contacts and web content in one place, is available for around 100 handsets across various platforms such as Android. The H1 and M1 were the only handsets launched as '360 phones'.

"The strategy was always to deliver 360 services across multiple platforms," Vodafone told ZDNet UK on Monday. "The focus has shifted from the tailormade devices to offering 360 services over more platforms and across more handsets, whether preloaded or available as an over-the-air download."

The company would not comment on its future plans to carry LiMo handsets, other than to say that there is "nothing to say we will not be ranging LiMo devices from other manufacturers".