Vodafone boosts 360 with Nokia X6 and new apps

You may not have taken too much notice of Vodafone’s new mobile web experience, Vodafone 360, or the handsets that support it, but they will be hard to avoid this year as the company steps up its efforts. It has now launched its own version of the Nokia X6 to support 360, joining the existing Samsung handset choices, M1 and H1. The LG GD880 and several Android phones will follow soon.

Most importantly, Vodafone needs to stock up its applications store if it is to lure users to 360 rather than Android or iPhone. The well priced midrange handsets will help, and for some users, so will the interesting user interface, which is heavily geared to social networking and unified messaging between email, text, IM and Facebook. This was developed for the LiMO Linux-based operating system, and is now being adapted for other platforms – Vodafone has even hinted at putting 360 applications into the iPhone App Store, now it has rights to the Apple phone in many markets.

On the apps front, it has shown a version of the central 360 app, Vodafone People, for Android and says there are now over 7,000 apps available for download from the Vodafone 360 Apps Shop. By March these will be supported by 50 handsets – over Christmas, the H1 and M1 were the carrier’s smartphone bestsellers in the UK and Germany, although this was before Vodafone shipped its iPhone.

The latest apps come from WIN, which has added Pocket Doctor, a medical guide; an app to provide lottery information and a lucky number generator; and Snow and Ski, which delivers information on ski conditions at resorts all over the world. The first two are free while Snow and Ski costs €0.99. The apps run on Symbian or LiMO.

And the 360 co-branded version of the Nokia X6 is now available to order in the UK, preloaded with the Vodafone software, and will soon come to Germany and other European markets. It is the successor to Nokia’s successful XpressMusic 5800, its first touchscreen model, and part of the newly relabelled X Series of midrange smartphones geared mainly to entertainment and social networking. It has a bright 3.2-inch touchscreen and comes with exclusive Vodafone content such as the preloaded third series of comedy series Gavin and Stacey.

It also features a 5-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and dual LED flash; and a ‘built-in DJ’ that chooses the music for your mood. The Vodafone 360 Homescreen gives access to Vodafone My Web, VIP contacts and the 360 Apps & Games Shop, plus the DRM-free Vodafone Music service. The handset is free with two-year contracts of at least £30 a month with 600 minutes, unlimited texts and 500Mb of mobile internet.