Orange Moves From Music to Mobile Multimedia With Sony Ericsson

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."

For more information about Orange visit http://www.orange.com/en_EN/group/

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[1] An increase of 60% in the last six months in the UK alone

Source: Orange

For further information, please contact: Orange, Vanessa Clarke, +44-(0)7891-056-593, vanessa.clarke@orange-ftgroup.com. Georgina Hart, +44-7730-989-693, georgina.hart@orange-ftgroup.com

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Profile: International Entertainment