Orange Moves From Music to Mobile Multimedia With Sony Ericsson
PARIS, February 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --
- International Music Partnership Expands to Include Imaging and Gaming
Orange today announces it is extending its strategic partnership with
Sony Ericsson, opening the door to more fun and easy mobile multimedia
services. Coinciding with the launch of Sony Ericsson's consumer proposition
Entertainment Unlimited, Orange is adding a new range of entertainment phones
to the partnership, bringing high-quality Cyber-shotTM imaging and Java
gaming experiences to customers in addition to music. The extended two year
agreement builds upon a hugely successful partnership which integrates
Orange's music service in a range of Walkman devices. Since 2006, Orange has
sold over 6.3 million, making it the biggest provider of Walkman phones in
Europe.
The new range will be part of Orange's successful Signature Series, which
takes the best phones and makes them better by giving customers a simple and
relevant multimedia experience. Combining the Walkman handsets with Orange
Music Store, a full-track music download service that gives one click access
to over one million tracks, has seen Orange users of Sony Ericsson Walkman(R)
phones consume 50% more music than average music phone customers. As well as
music, the extended agreement will fully integrate innovative mobile services
from Orange into a new range of Sony Ericsson phones, including Orange Photo,
Orange Games and Orange Downloads.
"This is a natural evolution for Orange and Sony Ericsson and a great
example of how a fully integrated partnership can deliver both value to our
business and a fantastic customer experience," says Yves Maitre, Senior VP
Devices, Orange. "This successful partnership has already brought music to
the ears of millions of Orange customers. We are now strengthening this
leadership in music services and joint marketing campaigns by combining our
own mobile innovations with the best handsets to fulfil our vision, bringing
mobile multimedia to everyone."
Yves continues, "Our clear ambition is to increase usage by delivering
simple and relevant content, whilst helping customers discover new ways to
use their phone. As consumption of music via the phone has grown, our
customers have also shown an insatiable appetite for entertainment services
beyond downloading and listening to the latest tracks. As well as music,
we've also seen a sharp increase in games downloads[1] and people sharing
photos, so the time is right to seize this opportunity."
Pieter Pierle, Head of Global Customer Unit Orange at Sony Ericsson says,
"We have always enjoyed a very successful music partnership with Orange, we
know that two of the top three music handsets from Orange are from our own
range. With a shared passion to bring mobile entertainment and content to
everyone, Orange and Sony Ericsson are building upon a great partnership to
ensure further success."
Pieter Pierle concludes, "Our new consumer proposition Entertainment
Unlimited perfectly aligns with Orange's fresh approach to mobile multimedia,
of which entertainment services play a huge part. Under the umbrella of
Entertainment Unlimited, we at Sony Ericsson are now uniting all the
experiences that have made us a leader in music, imaging and digital content
services, making this partnership a perfect fit for customers that want the
best entertainment experience available."
