Orange today announced the launch of Social Life, a mobile social networking aggregator which brings together activity on Facebook, MySpace and Bebo in one central place. Accessible from Orange World, Orange's mobile internet portal, Social Life allows customers to view and post updates and get in touch with friends and family across all three social networks at the same time through a single log-in.
Available to all Orange mobile customers, the Social Life home screen allows users to:
Customers have full control over which information they provide to each of their social networks - they can update their status and upload photos to some or all of them through the Social Life home screen. Social Life also allows customers to keep on top of social network activity through SMS - with them able to set up free text alerts on specific social network activity and send updates via text message.
Offering access to Facebook, Bebo and MySpace from launch, the service will also look to incorporate more social networks and Web 2.0 sites in 2009.
Orange has placed mobile social networking at the heart of its offers. Orange was the first operator to offer pay-as-you-go customers free access to Facebook, MySpace and Bebo, while contract customers receive free mobile internet access on certain tariffs. Such attractive offers have seen the popularity of mobile social networking soar - the most recent Orange Digital Media Index revealed a 129% increase in monthly page impressions and a 48% increase in monthly unique users.
Orange also announced today that it has launched Orange Widget Player, a customisable interface which provides fast access to useful content and favourite applications from the Orange home screen on Orange Signature devices. Using Widget Player, customers can instantly access news, weather and sport updates along with applications such as search, Wikipedia, world clock and others from a widgets catalogue that will grow throughout 2009. Currently available on the Nokia 6303, Widget Player will be rolled out on further devices through the course of 2009.
Mark Watts-Jones, Head of Product Management for Orange UK, said: "With Social Life and Widget Player we're making it simple for customers to manage their favourite content, applications and social networks at the touch of a button. Over time we will be looking to add more sites to the service - helping users to stay in touch in touch with the people and content that matters most to them".
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Notes to editors
Pricing Customers' usual mobile data rates apply for accessing and uploading photos through Social Life. Customers can also upload photos using MMS, for which their usual rates apply.
All Social Life SMS alerts are free for pay-as-you-go and pay-monthly customers. Texts sent by customers to update their status are included in the customer's text bundle if they have one or charged at their usual rate.
Orange Digital Media Index On May 14th, 2009 Orange unveiled its fifth Digital Media Index, a detailed report offering an insight into customer consumption of digital media. Headline findings included:
The full report can be downloaded at the following address: http://newsroom.orange.co.uk/2009/05/14/orange-reveals-digital-media-boom/
About Orange Orange is the key brand of the France Telecom Group, one of the world's leading telecommunications operators. With 123 million customers, the Orange brand now covers Internet, television and mobile services in the majority of countries where the Group operates.
At the end of 2008, France Telecom had consolidated sales of 53.5 billion euros (12.7 billion euros for the first quarter of 2009) and at 31st March 2009, the Group had a customer base of almost 184 million customers in 32 countries. These include 123 million mobile customers worldwide and 13 million broadband Internet (ADSL) customers in Europe. Orange is the number three mobile operator and the number one provider of broadband Internet services in Europe and, under the brand Orange Business Services, is one of the world leaders in providing telecommunication services to multinational companies.
In the UK, Orange provides high quality GSM coverage to 99% of the UK population and was ranked number 1 best network for 3G coverage by Ofcom in July 2009. At the end of March 2009, Orange had almost 17 million customers in the UK - 15.8 million active mobile customers and close to one million fixed broadband customers.
Orange and any other Orange product or service names included in this material are trade marks of Orange Personal Communications Services Limited.
For more information: www.orange.com, www.francetelecom.com, www.orange-business.com For further information, call the Orange press office on 0870 373 1500 or email: Orangepr@golinharris.com or visit www.orange.co.uk/newsroom