Orange Mimics Apple's App Shop

France Telecom’s (FTE) wireless subsidiary Orange has mirrored Apple’s (AAPL) strategy as the carrier has officially launched its own mobile application store ("Orange App Shop"). This is similar to Apple’s App Store (launched in mid-2008), which has gained immense popularity due to iPhone-based applications.

Although belated, Orange has now joined the league of industry bellwethers such as Apple, Nokia (NOK), Google (GOOG) and Microsoft (MSFT) in offering a mobile application store. The multi-platform Orange App Shop is now available in France and the UK and will soon be extended to other European markets. The service is compatible with devices based on Android, Blackberry, Symbian and Windows Mobile operating systems.

App Shop, which is currently available to more than one million customers, offers "one-click" access to 5,000 (free or paid) mutimedia services including mobile applications, ringtones, wallpapers, music, video, maps and games. However, this is about half of more than 10,000 applications offered by Apple. Nevertheless, Orange plans to add many more applications in 2010.

Orange customers can buy/download their preferred services without pre-registering (to use credit cards) and will be charged on their monthly mobile phone bills. This will offer customer convenience which is expected to boost user traffic for Orange App Shop.

Starting January 2010, Orange App Shop will support handsets such as Nokia 6700, Sony Ericsson W995 and Sony Ericsson Yari U100i. More devices including handsets from Samsung, LG, HTC, Motorola (MOT) and Research In Motion (RIMM) will follow later in 2010.

Leveraging its market leading 3G network, Orange recently launched Apple’s iPhone (3G & 3GS) in UK. The iconic device will help the operator address a significant portion of UK’s cellular user base. However, Orange has not mentioned whether it will sell iPhone applications through its newly launched store.

App Shop will enable Orange to leverage the growing popularity of the mobile Internet as people spend more and more time on the web to access their favorite data content. The market for mobile content is forecasted to grow 18% to $67 billion in 2009, providing enough reasons to leading telecom carriers and technology firms to seize this business opportunity. With the launch of App Shop, Orange is now better positioned than before to attract new customers.

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