Orange pockets the difference

Orange have teamed up with ASDA to sell mobile phones in its stores. The first ASDA to trial the Orange concessions will be in Eastlands, Manchester earlier this month. There are 100,000 customers a week, so the 7 full time Orange staff in the ASDA store will be very busy. If this concession is successful, it will be rolled out to 30 other ASDA superstores. It may even be rolled out to the smaller ASDA stores.

October is an exciting time for Orange as this month they also opened their first ever multimedia store last week. The store opened in Midsummer Arcade in Milton Keynes and is aimed at encouraging more engagement between customers and mobile multimedia technology. The opening came at the same time as the launch of the Motorola’s DEXT mobile. The store has all the multimedia technology you would expect. There is a 70-inch cinema-style screen and seating for product demonstrations, workshops and film previews.

I wonder if Orange are trying to compete with Apple in the space for the most coolest and interactive mobile/app stores. If the reviews of the store are anything to go by, they are certainly making headway in this area.

The simplest mobile phone is the most popular

Sometimes the simplest handsets are the best.

When I went into the Orange shop over the weekend, I was surprised to see one of their most popular PAYM (pay monthly) handsets was the Nokia 6700. Is it a new smart phone? No….. it is apparently the successor to the ever so popular 6500. The main reason this has been selling so well is because of its simplicity. When Nokia first came into the market, the simple, easy to use interface caught the attention of many and its followers began.

Ofcourse there are some updates to the mobile phone, there is the GPS, Nokia Maps, 3G with HSDPA and a 5mp autofocus camera. The Nokia 6300 only had a 2mp. The Nokia 6700 is reliable and easy to use and is a traditional classic style mobile but not old fashioned in any way. The keypad has well-spaced buttons so you will be able to quickly text without making mistakes.

Oh and I forgot to mention the camera also has an LED flash and the video camera is pretty good you can record at up to VGA resolution. And yes there is an MP3 player but it can just handle a limited number of formats. You can tune into the FM radio and with RDS can see what you are listening to.

The memory is quite a lot too, there is already 170 MB of built-in memory, enough for 40 MP3 tracks, but there is also a microSD card slot which can hold cards up to 8GB.

So next time you are looking for a new phone, you might just want to have a look at those mobile phones that aren’t as flashy and as big as the others. Sometimes the best things come in small packages. Those sticking to a budget will be pleased to know it is free on pay monthly contracts of 20 pounds per month.