Orange, the first network to introduce the Smartphone, are to make some radical changes to their management team. Mobile phone giant Orange is to join a European alliance formed by T-Mobile, Telefonica Moviles and Telecom Italia Mobile. Orange will also focus on moving “intelligence” from handsets to the network, as it has begun to do with its Orange Backup and Update services on the Smartphone. Customers’ data and services will be stored on the network, rather than on their phones.
“The wirefree vision is that you can get your services anywhere, on whatever device you want. We’re building a network that will morph to suit customer’s needs,” said a Spokesman. Orange have hit the “wall” that almost every network in the world is hitting – that point at which simply selling new handsets is no longer generating enough revenue. Handsets, especially in the Euro-zone, have hit saturation level – so Orange is turning its’ attention to selling services – better, more customer-focused services. It has found that a huge majority of people either don’t know or don’t want to use services such as GPRS, WAP etc. and is now offering free “training” in these services at Orange Shops nationwide. Orange hope that by introducing these new schemes it will help to increase ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) and fill the void left by falling handset sales and new subscribers.
Sol Trujillo (CEO of Orange Group, pictured) said Orange and its partners will also develop and expand pan-European services, aimed at high-spending business customers. They also stated that they are on track to deliver 3G services in the UK next year.
Orange SA outlined their vision for the future and introduced the new management team. More details on the Orange.com site here.
Orange no longer want to be “just friendly” with their customers, but now actually want to “get intimate” with you lot!! 🙂 This will hopefully raise revenue by informing people of exactly what they can do with their phone (Orange Training Trains Orange Trainers Commercial)
Other key points…
– Orange outgrowing any other network in the UK
– Maintaining market leadership in France
Click here to read The Sunday Times article which first announced these changes on Sunday.
Click here for the BBC News Report on this story.
Saw this earlier (when Orange accidentally posted the entire PDF too early! hehehe) .. it shows the roadmap for SmartPhones on the Orange Network. Very interesting! 🙂 For feedback and more news – click here!
