Orange Moves From Music to Mobile Multimedia With Sony Ericsson

Orange Moves From Music to Mobile Multimedia With Sony Ericsson

PARIS, February 17/PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --

- International Music Partnership Expands to Include Imaging and
Gaming

Orange today announces it is extending its strategic
partnership with Sony Ericsson, opening the door to more fun and easy mobile
multimedia services. Coinciding with the launch of Sony Ericsson's consumer
proposition Entertainment Unlimited, Orange is adding a new range of
entertainment phones to the partnership, bringing high-quality Cyber-shotTM
imaging and Java gaming experiences to customers in addition to music. The
extended two year agreement builds upon a hugely successful partnership which
integrates Orange's music service in a range of Walkman devices. Since 2006,
Orange has sold over 6.3 million, making it the biggest provider of Walkman
phones in Europe.

The new range will be part of Orange's successful Signature
Series, which takes the best phones and makes them better by giving customers
a simple and relevant multimedia experience. Combining the Walkman handsets
with Orange Music Store, a full-track music download service that gives one
click access to over one million tracks, has seen Orange users of Sony
Ericsson Walkman(R) phones consume 50% more music than average music phone
customers. As well as music, the extended agreement will fully integrate
innovative mobile services from Orange into a new range of Sony Ericsson
phones, including Orange Photo, Orange Games and Orange Downloads.

"This is a natural evolution for Orange and Sony Ericsson and
a great example of how a fully integrated partnership can deliver both value
to our business and a fantastic customer experience," says Yves Maitre,
Senior VP Devices, Orange. "This successful partnership has already brought
music to the ears of millions of Orange customers. We are now strengthening
this leadership in music services and joint marketing campaigns by combining
our own mobile innovations with the best handsets to fulfil our vision,
bringing mobile multimedia to everyone."

Yves continues, "Our clear ambition is to increase usage by
delivering simple and relevant content, whilst helping customers discover new
ways to use their phone. As consumption of music via the phone has grown, our
customers have also shown an insatiable appetite for entertainment services
beyond downloading and listening to the latest tracks. As well as music,
we've also seen a sharp increase in games downloads[1] and people sharing
photos, so the time is right to seize this opportunity."

Pieter Pierle, Head of Global Customer Unit Orange at Sony
Ericsson says, "We have always enjoyed a very successful music partnership
with Orange, we know that two of the top three music handsets from Orange are
from our own range. With a shared passion to bring mobile entertainment and
content to everyone, Orange and Sony Ericsson are building upon a great
partnership to ensure further success."

Pieter Pierle concludes, "Our new consumer proposition
Entertainment Unlimited perfectly aligns with Orange's fresh approach to
mobile multimedia, of which entertainment services play a huge part. Under
the umbrella of Entertainment Unlimited, we at Sony Ericsson are now uniting
all the experiences that have made us a leader in music, imaging and digital
content services, making this partnership a perfect fit for customers that
want the best entertainment experience available."

For more information about Orange visit
http://www.orange.com/en_EN/group/

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[1] An increase of 60% in the last six months in the UK alone

Source: Orange

For further information, please contact: Orange, Vanessa Clarke, +44-(0)7891-056-593, vanessa.clarke@orange-ftgroup.com. Georgina Hart, +44-7730-989-693, georgina.hart@orange-ftgroup.com

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