Those living in Europe can lift up a broad smile at Vodafone this upcoming holiday season, as the Vodafone Group PLC has plans in the pipeline to bring a bunch of new handsets, where among them include a top of the line touchscreen capable model that could see it rival the iPhone from Apple in terms of functionality, performance and sales. First off, Vodafone will have an exclusive agreement to offer the Samsung F700 smartphone that is is based on proprietary technology developed by Samsung. This handset will be customized and co-branded by Vodafone so that it will be truly unique when compared against the vanilla F700. It features touchscreen capability, audio and video support, a pull down QWERTY keyboard, as well as 3G and HSDPA connectivity - giving users a theoretical maximum speed of 7.2Mbps (although we will never see such performance in real life at this point in time).

So far, there is no word from Vodafone as to whether the company will also offer the iPhone. Some people would see that move to be negative as the iPhone and F700 pretty much cancels out each other, although there is word floating around that the Europe-bound iPhone will not come with 3G connectivity unlike as alluded in the past few months. Other than the Samsung F700, Vodafone has also more than 25 new cellphones to deliver in time for the hectic holiday season. 13 of these will boast HSDPA support, while all the new handsets will come with 3G connectivity of some sort.

As for the more exact details such as pricing and availability, Vodafone has remained mum. We do know that among these will be the Vodafone-branded 920 that was manufactured by HTC Corporation, as well as the co-branded i620v from Samsung. It also remains to be seen whether there will be a new Palm out during the holidays, but that’s another story for a different day. When all’s said and done, you’d better start saving up if you want a new phone this Christmas!

Source: PCWorld