Its been anticipated for some time, but now the official announcement has been made. Sendo have liscensed the Symbian OS following up on their liscensing on Series 60. Sendo’s first Symbian OS product will be a data-enabled smartphone using the Series 60 User Interface.

Press Release:

Sendo licenses Symbian OS for smartphones
London, United Kingdom - January 22nd, 2003 - Sendo Holdings Ltd. and Symbian Ltd announce that Sendo, the British mobile phone manufacturer, has signed an agreement to license the Symbian OS for use in its smartphones for 2.5G and 3G networks worldwide.

As previously announced, Sendo’s first Symbian OS product will be a data-enabled smartphone using the Series 60 User Interface platform which Sendo has licensed from Nokia. The Series 60 User Interface platform is specifically designed to provide a user interface for Symbian OS devices.

Sendo selected Symbian OS on the basis of its market and technical merits. Symbian OS is the de facto industry standard operating system for advanced mobile phones which has been adopted by mobile phone manufacturers worldwide. Using the advanced, open Symbian OS, Sendo will create innovative and highly differentiated smartphones for customers worldwide. Sendo’s customers will also benefit from developers creating third party applications and services for Symbian OS phones.

Hugh Brogan, CEO, Sendo Holdings Plc, said, “Licensing Symbian OS is an important part of our mission to provide customers in worldwide markets with feature-rich and ubiquitous smartphones devices. Symbian OS is based on open standards and technologies such as MMS and Java and has been developed in partnership with the mobile industry. Having access to Symbian OS source code, as well as Symbian OS’s inherent flexibility and openness, means we can rapidly develop differentiated devices that fully meet our customers’ needs.”

David Levin, CEO, Symbian Ltd., said, “We are delighted to welcome Sendo as a Symbian OS licensee. Sendo is an emerging force in the smartphone market and we look forward to working with them as they develop innovative, differentiated Series 60 devices, extending the choice of Symbian OS products available to customers worldwide.”