Vodafone in 3G handset Christmas attack

Vodafone is hoping for a happy Christmas for its 3G push.

Following on from the launch of its business 3G services, the mobile operator is banking on users updating to third generation phones and has announced it intends to bring out a suite of third generation handsets in time for the Christmas spending boom.

Ten handsets from six different makers are scheduled for launch in November in Europe and Japan. Some of the handsets, including products from Sharp, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, NEC, Nokia and Samsung, will be exclusive to Vodafone.

Big Red's launch will bring Europe its first two-megapixel camera phone, according to Vodafone.

Vodafone's Christmas consumer 3G launch will offer its British customers almost as many handsets as rival third generation company 3. However, the pair won't have consumer 3G to themselves for long - it's thought at least two other operators will launch their third generation services in the UK before the end of the year.

Still, the 3G market is set to open up significantly for business and consumers, according to research.

Analyst house IDC predicted this week that the number of 3G data cards would boom, rising from to 1.2 million at the moment to 5.7 million in 2008.

The Wireless World Forum (W2F) is predicting that the number of 3G subscribers worldwide will almost double - up from an estimated 45 million users at the end of this year to 85 million in 2005.

However, if consumer 3G is to take off, the W2F warns, seamless migration and getting the focus right are key. While 3G has taken off in Japan and Korea, where one in six of the population are on third generation networks, just 1.3 per cent of the European population can say the same.

The first UK entrant into the market didn't really help that situation, according to the W2F, by pushing 3G with cheap voice calls rather than interesting data services.

3 preempted the Vodafone launch last week by trying to draw more users onto the 3G bandwagon - by announcing new cheap voice and text packages.