Case study

Orange is first UK retailer to take BlackBerry Bold and Samsung Omnia handsets Orange has scored a smartphone double over rival mobile retailers as the first to range the much-anticipated BlackBerry 900 Bold and Samsung’s 16GB Omnia handsets.

Orange launched the Bold, by Research in Motion (RIM), earlier this month, ahead of T-Mobile, Carphone Warehouse and Vodafone. 3 said in April at the Hugh Symons Unity seminar it will also take the handset. O2 has confirmed they too will stock the handset before Christmas.

Orange has also taken delivery of early stock of the 16GB version of Samsung’s Omnia phone, its first Windows Mobile device, which comes with a 5 migapixel camera. Orange has a six-week exclusive on the 16GB version. Other retailers will range the 8GB version in the meantime.

The Blackberry Bold is already available ‘free’ on £40 deals from all Orange’s direct channels. It will be available from Carphone at the end of the month on Orange, on the same price plans. A £2.50 charge for unlimited data is also available. T-Mobile customers signing to the Business One plan can take the Bold from September, with free access to T-Mobile’s 1,000 Wi-Fi hotspots around the country. Vodafone said it will be selling the device in the coming weeks on 18 month deals, although tariff details were unavailable as Mobile News went to press.

The Blackberry Bold is HSDPA-enabled. It is the first RIM BlackBerry handset to allow customers to open, edit and send Microsoft Word and Excel documents.  An Orange spokesperson said: “Some people are calling it a genuine rival to the iPhone, so for us to be the first to launch the handset is great news.” T-Mobile head of business marketing Oliver Chivers said: “The BlackBerry Bold offers all the features our customers expect, as well as a range of advanced functionality that enhance its business benefits. “We are sure it will prove a popular choice with both SME and enterprise customers.”

The new Samsung i900 Omnia touch screen handset, uses Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, which includes Word, Excel and PowerPoint. The handset strikes many similarities to Apples iPhone not only in looks, but by being sold in two different versions 8GB and 16GB. However, unlike the iPhone, this device has expandable memory capabilities, and features a 5 megapixel camera, including a feature called face and smile detection. Other features include GPS, FM radio, Wi-Fi and HSDPA, and will be boxed with a spare stylus and leather carrying case.

Details on pricing have yet to be confirmed.

Orange will be the first carrier to offer the upcoming Blackberry Bold.  The France Télécom UK outfit confirmed it will be the very first carrier with Bold. This beats T-Mobile by weeks, despite that firm being the first to announce. Initially, a source at the Carphone Warehouse informed us they’ll be trumping Deutsche Telekom September arrival of the phone, by stocking the Bold on Orange from the 21st of this month. A follow-up call to Orange surprised the bejesus out of them as no one was supposed to know any of this, A spokesperson at Orange said the firm will even be beating Carphone Warehouse to the shelves. Orange will be taking stock on the 14th and will have them in its shops by the Saturday 16th, along with online ordering.  The tariffs start at £45 a month, with the phone free. We understand the Warehouse folk will be offering deals on gratis handsets from just £40, with an unlimited data allowance. Normally the latter’s priced at £2.50 per month, but will be refunded every quarter. Not a peep still from O2 or Vodafone on arrival dates, despite attempts at cajoling information out of them. The relationship with O2 is usually quite strong, as they were the first out the starting gates with the likes of the Curve.

A spokesO2 said: “the Blackberry Bold is still undergoing product testing. We will only launch a device when we are confident it will deliver a great customer experience.” This is an odd response, seeing as they know full well we recently toyed with the O2 version of the phone for sometime at the Wireless Festival in London, with no problems whatsoever. What’s even odder than that is the press samples of the handset sent out by RIM for review carry a Vodafone SIM card.

Just in case you need a refresher as to what the Bold is all about, it’s the first Blackberry phone to support tri-band HSDPA networks, with integrated GPS, Wi-Fi and a new full-QWERTY keyboard. Here’s a picture of the phone on an Orange network, the very first image to be seen anywhere on the very first network to support it.

Spanish telecoms giant Telefonica has outperformed Vodafone in the UK and Spanish mobile phone markets, confirming its British rival’s relatively poor first-quarter performance there. Telefonica, the parent company of O2, reported 11pc UK revenue growth in the three months to June 30 as it added 275,000 new customers. In contrast, Vodafone last week reported revenue growth of just 2.1pc in the UK as it shed 27,000 customers. Matthew Key, chief executive of Telefonica Europe, said: “We have been taking market share from Vodafone in the UK. That is clear from the numbers.”

In Spain, where Vodafone saw revenues tumble 2.5pc - ending a sustained period of growth - Telefonica’s mobile arm managed to eke out growth of 0.2pc despite the tougher economic climate. O2 UK’s quarterly figures did not include sales of the iPhone 3G which went on sale in July 11 and has become the company’s fastest-selling phone ever. Mr Key admitted the company had experienced a shortage of the new device, leaving disappointing many customers. However, he said the company was hoping that within a month it would have enough stock to allow any customer to walk into any store a buy an iPhone off the shelf. He added that half of customers were buying the phone on a tariff of £45 or £75 a month, with iPhone customers still spending 30pc more on average per month than standard customers. Shares in Telefonica rose 21c to €16.66, while Vodafone edged 1.1 higher at 136.05p. Shares in Orange’s parent France Telecom rose 59c to €20.37 as it said it would pay an interim dividend for the first time ever. Orange added just 1,000 new UK customers in the three months to June 30 but saw revenues rise 9.7pc in the first half as it attracted higher spending contract customers. Tom Alexander, chief executive of Orange UK, said: “While we’re mindful of the economic climate in the UK, this is a damn good time to expand - that’s why we’re pushing harder on the high street with new retail stores, while simultaneously growing our mobile network. “We’re seeing that mobile is relatively resilient to economic change. Mobile is embedded in people’s lives and they’re spending more than they did last year on Orange.”