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May 23, 2008

Yesterday, Nokia and France Telecom's Orange Division announced an agreement to launch integrated mobile content services on ten Nokia handsets that will be part of Orange’s Signature range.

This contract extends a deal the two made three months ago, adding direct access to a mix of content from both Orange and Nokia, including one-click access to the Orange Music Store, both Orange and N-Gage games and Nokia’s mapping service.

The agreement is set to last 3 years and will be rolled out across 9 markets in the second half of 2008.

George Penalver, executive v.p. of Orange's Group Strategic Marketing said "combined with our leadership in mobile multimedia innovation and relationships with leading content providers, Orange believes that Nokia's devices and Ovi platform will make a powerful environment for the provision of a joint range of services."

Unlike Nokia’s other two mobile content carrier partners, Vodafone and T-Mobile, Orange has not agreed to fully embrace the handset maker’s push into content offerings, under its title Ovi. However, the two companies said new services would be added over time.

“Nokia's agressive push of its Ovi platform is part of a conscious push to muscle into the mobile Internet space. Although both Nokia and the mobile operators are keen to project these deals as a symbiotic partnership where both parties gain equally, Global Insight worries about the impact on the strategies of the mobile operators,” wrote Global Insight Telecoms analyst Emeka Obiodu.

Obiodu added “despite moving away from their walled garden approach, operators still have a vested interest in keeping their own Internet portal as the default pages on mobile handsets. Ovi and the growth in flat-rate data pricing could well convert mobile operators into bit carriers faster than they have planned.”

While the deal is certainly good news for Nokia, research firm Global Insight worries that handset makers service offerings like Ovi could erode mobile operators position as mobile Internet portals.

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    This article was featured on Business 5.0.

Source: Nokia and France Telecom.