Sendo Z100

Manufacturer: Sendo Deal Announced: Thursday 16th April 2002 Price on launch: $399/ £279) with operator subsidies $999 without subsidies. Cancelled: November 7th 2002

The Sendo announcement surprised many Amiga observers. Unlike previous announcements where Amiga partners would remain silent, Sendo actively promoted the Amiga link on their web site. In fact it was them whom revealed they had licensed Amiga Anywhere for their Smartphone 2002 handset. This excited many people - the Z100 was to be the first device on the market to run Microsoft's Smartphone 2002 software, offering email, HTML & WAP browsers, Java support, digital music player and other handheld computer capabilities in a compact mobile phone form factor. The Microsoft link provided the first news of Amiga Inc's developing relationship with the software giant.

At the time, Amiga Inc were one of several companies involved in supplying content for he Z100 Smart phone. Several games companies, such as Hexacto, Versaly, Terra Mobile-iobox, and Incagold are creating a number of titles for the platform. Ideaworks3D's Segundo mobile gaming middleware and Fathammer's X-Forge™ 3D Game Engine is expected to be available, allowing a large catalogue of games to be ported to the device.

So why haven't you read the adverts in national newspapers promoting it? If the Z100 is so good, where is it? The short answer is that it was never launched. In a move that resembled Amiga Inc's previous Nokia deal, Sendo cancelled the Z100 just weeks before it was due for launch. In an interview with the Register website, Marijke van Hooren, Sendo director of communications, cited legal reasons for the product cancellation. She stated:

"If we had a choice we would have launched the Z100 - we have customers, we have handsets out there with journalists, we were days away from shipping - but we had no other course of action."

It was later revealed that Sendo had ceased their work with Microsoft, accusing the Redmond giant of misappropriation of trade secrets, common law misappropriation, conversion, unfair competition, fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, two counts of negligent misrepresentation, two counts of breach of contract, fraudulent inducement and tortious interference. Phew!

Amiga users were understandably disappointed at yet another Amiga product being cancelled. The news sparked a wave of criticism aimed towards Amiga Inc. It should be noted that, like the Nokia deal, it was not their fault. Amiga Inc's deal with Sendo still exists and may blossom into a tangible product when Sendo launch the Nokia Series 60 phone in March 2003.

Specifications

Read the Sendo-Amiga Press Release
Read the Sendo-Tao Group press release
Amiga Anywhere and Amiga Content to ship on new Z100 smartphone (27th July 2002)

BACK