Vodafone unveils its Internet service, Vodafone 360

Vodafone, the second largest mobile telecom group in the world has announced a Web service meshing social networks, contacts and entertainment to compete with Apple, Google and Nokia.

Vodafone said that its “Vodafone 360” service would be available on two Samsung mobiles and four Nokia phones in eight European countries by this Christmas. The new service will offer visitors to synchronize their contacts from social networks such as Facebook and other Internet accounts.

Analysts predict that the vendor is planning to increase customer loyalty and data revenues in the face of stiff competition from Apple's iPhone, RIM's Blackberry and Google's Android platform, which all offer applications such as games and music applications.

At present, Vodafone 360’s catalog offers over 1,000 applications will be available at launch. However, non-Vodafone customers will also be able to access some of the services.