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Sendo files for divorce - takes kids ...

When Sendo abruptly terminated its contract with Microsoft and pulled out of the "SmartPhone" project, it was assumed that things had got nasty: but few expected they could get even meaner. They have: Sendo has sued Microsoft.

The hopes for a happy marriage between Sendo - the newest of the manufacturers of mobile phones - and Microsoft - the newest on the mobile software scene - were seen to be optimistic as soon as the Birmingham-based hardware company announced that it liked Java.

That was almost at the start of the collaboration between the two; but when asked, both dismissed rumours that there was a difference of temperament. Then, a week after Microsoft finally unveiled the first official SmartPhone - a rival design from Taiwanese builder HTC - and with the Sendo Z100 due for launch in the US this January through Sprint and through T-Mobile both in US and elsewhere, Sendo abruptly walked out of the relationship.

And it announced that it would take the Z100 project away from Microsoft, and set up home with rival software designer Symbian - an offshoot of Psion.

It now turns out that there is a tussle going on for the children - or, as Sendo's lawsuit puts it, the "attempted theft of technical expertise and proprietary technology."

To say that observers have been astonished is, for once, not mere journalistic hyperbole. Apart from the Java issue, there were almost no hints of the fracture of the marriage before; indeed, at pre-launch briefings of the SmartPhone, Microsoft gave as much platform space to Sendo as to HTC; and when the Orange SPV was launched, Sendo was given its own little exhibition booth at London's Smithfield fish market. There was no detectable smell of fish.

After the split, neither side would say a word, and clearly, the fear was that legal procedings might be prejudiced.

But most observers expected any legal action to come from Microsoft, which had invested substantially in Sendo shares - estimates of between 6% to 10% of the Sendo shareholding were taken by Redmond. That lawsuit is still on the cards.

The only whisper to emerge came from a former Sendo partner, which refused to make any official comment, but said: "Well, you know what Microsoft is like to work for, for a smaller partner, don't you?" - implying that the software giant had been riding roughshod over Sendo sensitivities and preferences.

Since then, Sendo technical staff have been attending Symbian courses, marketing staff have been working frantically to recall all evaluation phones in the hands of analysts and journalists, and not a squeak has emerged from any official sources - until this weekend, when the lawsuit was announced in Texas.

Why Texas? Neither Sendo nor Microsoft is based there - though Sendo does have a US office in Dallas. One theory is that Texas Instruments, whose version of the ARM processor (the OMAP processor) is inside the phone, may be a reason for this.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has gone ahead with its own preparations for the unexpected US launch of the SPV, in a different guise, and silence is all that can be heard from the other two SmartPhone licencees, Samsung and Compal.

Expect some leaks from next month's Consumer Electronics Show, where executives involved in the "Smart Display" project inside Microsoft will be briefing analysts on the future of the Pocket PC design ...