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Welcome to the March edition of the Orange Partner newsletter.

This month's edition is packed with exciting news about our forthcoming Partner Camp, Cape Canaveral 16-18 April 2007.

We've published new information on the programme plus we're telling you how to book valuable eye-time with representatives from Orange and the France Telecom Group, before the event.

If you have never been to an Orange Partner Camp before, you need to attend this one to meet with Orange high level decision makers. If you are a regular, welcome back – there will be loads of new information shared at this event.

Also, get the latest figures on European mobile subscriptions and 3G penetration globally, and read through the article on the new trends emerging from the growth of Near Field Communication (NFC) technology.

Plus find out about the forthcoming industry events we're attending, who will be there from Orange, and get the latest on who won the IMG awards, sponsored by Orange.

Best regards,

New homepage – tell us what you think…

We've redesigned our homepage to give you quick-access to the most-used areas of our website.

You may have noticed that our Orange Partner website www.orangepartner.com homepage has undergone a recent make-over?

We've listened to your feedback, and responded, making changes to the site to help you get faster access to the 'hot topics' of interest within the website and the Orange Partner programme, as a whole.

In one click you can get the latest device specs, the latest articles and reports and information on our newest route-to-market for your applications – the Orange Application Shop.

We've compiled these 'hot topics' from click rates from both the website and the newsletter and these will be frequently updated – so you can keep abreast of the latest updates from the programme.

You'll also notice that you can now get a full view of the areas within the website from the left hand navigation.

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New devices – check out the specifications

Read through the latest device specs, published on our site

This month you can check out the device specs for the Samsung Lily, Orange SPV M700, Blackberry Pearl 8100 and Motorola W375.

Last month we told you about the launch of two new Unik devices for professionals in France, and published the specs for Nokia 6136 and Samsung P200 which allow customers to use fixed and mobile telephony when they're near a Livebox at home.

To help you develop for the latest and most popular devices across our footprint we regularly update this area of our website – so you can have all the information you need to develop for Orange, including testing and development tools, in one place.

Read the device specs now >

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Europe is the largest 3G market – get the latest figures

If you're developing products and services using 3G technology, then take a look at the latest figures of 3G uptake and get an understanding of the market as whole.

According to Informa Telecoms & Media estimates, there were over 95 million W-CDMA customers in the world at the end of 2006, doubling the figure of the previous year.

In France alone, Orange announced 3.5m mobile broadband customers at the end of 2006.

In addition Europe has jumped ahead of Japan to become the largest world "market" with just over half of the W-CDMA customers.

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European mobile figures – penetration has reached 100%

We've sourced some information to give you an in-depth view of the European mobile customer base and help you understand which countries have demonstrated the largest customer growth.

With 3.1m net new customers in December, the European base ended the year at over 423m mobile customers.

Reporting an annual rise of 8%, only slightly down on 2005 (9%), the prepaid figure stood at around 57.5%, down by nearly 3 percentage points year on year.

Italy alone represented over a quarter of the net new customers in 2006, however Germany was still the top market with a little over 80m mobile customers at the end of December.

2006 will also be remembered as the year when the symbolic threshold of 100% penetration was crossed (1st quarter). 13 out of 17 countries in the region have now exceeded this figure.

Read the full information, and get the breakdown by country >

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Contactless technology – a whole new package of services

Here's some information describing the development of contactless technology, and how it's opening up new horizons for the mobile including m-payment, m-ticketing and m-banking.

Among the different types of wireless access (Bluetooth, infrared etc), the incorporation of Radio Frequency Identification (RDFI) cards in mobile phones heralds a profound mutation of the mobile.

Experiments are multiplying in Europe and the US using one of RFID technologies, Near Field Communication (NFC) as a cornerstone.

The latter is a contactless proximity technology developed by Philips and Sony. Integrated into mobiles, it enables people and objects to be identified and interconnected. Tickets, access badges, loyalty and credit cards: NFC will enable the dematerialisation of everything that currently exists as a magnetic card or paper ticket.

With contactless technology, the mobile can get to grips with practical services for everyday life. It will also enable personalised marketing services, with users being able to securely access information on a shop and its ongoing sales.

Find out more about the market, how the industry is reacting, the major players and what's been done in Japan and Europe so far - read through the full article >

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Orange Partner Camp, Cape Canaveral – 16-18 April 2007

Find out the latest updates to the programme

We're serious about working with you and to do this at Partner Camp, Cape Canaveral we've built a step-by-step programme, to take you through all the necessary stages towards partnering with us.

For our only Orange Partner Camp of 2007, we have a very different programme for you.
Split into three main areas: 'what you need to know about us', 'what we want from you' and 'helping you to…', plus the Opening and Closing Pow-Wow, we want you to gain an in depth understanding of our needs so we can work together successfully.

Each of the topic areas that we'll be exploring within the programme, is owned by a team within Orange and the France Telecom Group, and they have very specific requirements from you – our partners.

You'll be able to meet them through pre-scheduled one-to-one meetings, group discussions, and by entering the Orange Partner Camp contest. You'll need to book these before the event. Once you register, we'll let you know how to request to meet the team.

We're also looking for commercially-viable applications to fill the Orange Application Shop and at Partner Camp we're keen to review your applications, discuss contract terms and take you through the necessary steps to commercialise your products with us.

Places for the event, as always, are limited, and since this will be the only opportunity to attend an Orange Partner Camp in 2007, it's more important than ever to register early.

Find out more and register >

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CTIA Wireless 2007: 27-29 March, 2007 - Orlando, Florida

Don't miss the Developer Panel for what promises to be an interesting debate!

At the world's largest telecommunications event, you can find out more about wireless, broadband convergence and mobile computing technologies across the entire industry from network infrastructure to microprocessors to applications to content to end-user hardware.

Consumers want cool data applications. Carriers want profitable ones. The path to the deployment of a successful application, however, is terribly fragmented...

Steve Glagow, Director of Orange Partner, is taking part in the Developers Panel, which will explore the issues facing applications developers, including methods of working with large carriers, as well as highlight some high profile application companies that have been successful in bringing new applications to market.

Find out more >

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If you're attending this event, don't miss Olivier Hascoat, Director of Multimedia Services, Orange who'll be providing an insight into developing compelling pricing and bundling strategies to drive mobile content usage.

The topics that will be delved into include:

• how to determine to what extent price is the main barrier to uptake and usage of mobile content and services
• how to quantify the effectiveness and long-term value of introductory price offers for mobile content and services
• how to optimise price incentives to drive the uptake and usage of data services
• how to develop an innovative service bundle to optimise value to the customer and minimise cost to the operator

Find out more about the event >

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Following the last round of judging during 3GSM in Barcelona, the winners have been announced.

Over 400 developers from 42 countries competed for the prestigious prizes and out of the 400 entries, a shortlist of 25 was created. These were the most appealing, original and innovative ideas that are technically feasible.

The entrants of the nominated games, demos and projects had to submit a playable version by January 26, 2007, and out of these the 6 lucky winners were selected.

Congratulations to the all the winners and in particular to TNO who won the Most Innovative Game Award & The Grand Prix, with their game; Triangler.

Find out who won the remaining categories and read the full press release >

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To help you keep up to date we've collated the top 5 stories and articles from the newsletter and website that were of interest to our members last month (compiled using clicks per page analysis).

• Whitepaper download – RSS: not just for news anymore
• Orange Partner Camp, Cape Canaveral, 16-18 April – registration is now open
• Orange Compatible – get your products ready for inclusion in the Orange Application Shop
• Developing for Windows Mobile 5.0? – get all your questions answered
• Find out about the Orange Developer centres and how to book your place

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We want to hear your thoughts about the Orange Partner Newsletter. Drop us a line at developers@orange.com