Vodafone aims for a 3G Christmas
Mobile phone giant Vodafone unveiled details of 15 new handsets today as it began a push to stimulate take-up of its 3G services this Christmas.
The UK-based group said six of the new products would be at “entry level” price points in order to encourage mass market adoption of 3G.
It described the new handsets, which offer applications such as internet access and video downloads, as smaller and lighter than previous versions.
Eleven of the handsets will be available in the UK, where Vodafone achieved a 3G subscriber base of 282,000 at the end of June. It launched the third generation service in the UK in November last year and hopes to have ten million users worldwide by the end of March.
Vodafone chief marketing officer Peter Bamford said: “A significant proportion of the range is targeted at mid to entry level price points, encouraging the mass market adoption of Vodafone live! With 3G. We are confident that this is going to be a 3G Christmas.”
The new Vodafone range includes exclusive handsets from Sharp and Toshiba.
Among rival operators, O2 said it would concentrate on pushing a range of mobile phones this Christmas, including 3G, while established provider 3 said it was already well-placed to take advantage of the pick up in 3G interest.
A 3 spokeswoman said: “We have three years of experience of understanding what customers want from 3G and we are glad that Vodafone has come round to taking it seriously.”
