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More than two years of effort by Vodafone to create its own mobile web experience, under its own brand and control, have come to fruition with the launch of an ambitious platform that mirrors many of the concepts behind Nokia Ovi - but puts Linux-based standard LiMO at its heart. Vodafone 360 replaces the venerable portal Vodafone Live!, and represents the latest salvo in the cellco's ongoing battle to make its own brand and user experience the dominant one - a battle that has often made its relationships with its major handset suppliers, especially Nokia, uneasy.

Nothing is simple in the mobile web, and Vodafone will not abandon the two-pronged approach it has taken so far - supporting the smartphone brands and web platforms that are gaining market weight, while trying to shift the balance towards a range of webphones and services that run under its own brand and user interface. The building blocks have been put in place over a long period - most importantly, the commitment to LiMO (a Linux initiative that is far more operator controlled than Android or Moblin); the creation of the Joint Innovation Lab, with Verizon Wireless and China Mobile, to work on a common (OS-neutral but carrier driven) widgets system; and the introduction of the new 360 brand and marketing campaign.

The difficult challenge for Vodafone - like all major carriers that aim to keep the primary relationship with the consumer, rather than leaving it to a phonemaker or internet brand like Google - is to balance its own efforts, with the market demand for the big names. It cannot ignore high end Nokia phones in its heartland territories, so it has to make some room for Ovi and Symbian; it cannot afford to stay off the Android bandwaggon, so has put strong R&D and sales efforts behind HTC Magic. This dual-path strategy is echoed round the world - the the US cellcos are creating their own mobile web platforms (Verizon Wireless with Open Developer Initiative and a likely Android strategy, AT&T mulling Symbian for its own-brand web push), but know they also have to satisfy user enthusiasm for the carrier-neutral platforms (not to mention keeping the FCC happy on open access).

Vodafone is turning to predictable applications to make 360 shine over App Store, Android, Ovi and the rest. In particular, it is bringing together all its recent social and location efforts to create a portal that is heavily geared to the SoLo experience, aggregating a user's contacts, messaging and social nets (an approach also seen in Motorola's new Motoblur, aspects of Ovi and several operator initiatives including Telefonica's).

Other features of 360 include a cloud-based address book, full track music downloads (Vodafone recently became the first cellco to sign DRM-free deals with all the major music labels), and integration with Facebook and Twitter. The services will be integrated with a range of handsets, all using the open application programming interfaces and Linux OS of LiMO. The first handsets come from Samsung - the high end H1, which will come to Europe in late October with multitouch screen and 16Gb of memory; and then the midrange M1.

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