British mobile phone manufacturer Sendo has teamed up with Opera to optimise the Scandinavian browser developer's software for inclusion in Sendo's X handset.

Sendo stated that a key element behind the selection of Opera was the ability of the browser's Small-Screen Rendering technology to automatically reformat web pages to the Sendo X's screen size with no need for horizontal scrolling.

Rolf Assev, executive vice president for strategic alliances at Opera Software, said: "Most phones with internet access today aren't able to display HTML sites.

"A few can, but they are cumbersome to use and often unable to display important elements such as frames."

Susan Macke, vice president for smartphones at Sendo, explained that providing a usable browser was vital to making the company's handsets appealing to consumers.

She added that mobile web surfing was also important for operators as it gives them an increased income stream from GPRS data traffic.

"With Opera's technology the Sendo X goes beyond mobile Wap, giving users immediate access to the world of mainstream internet content. This is the real web in your hand: seamless and easy to navigate," said Macke.