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May 2008 |
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hello... Partner Camp is over, and we were completely full in Faro! It was great to see so many of you.
If you missed out, you can find out more in this month's newsletter and on the website (and don't forget to watch the movie).
Much has happened over the past two months since our last newsletter: around mid April, the 3 billionth GSM mobile connection was turned on (congratulations to the team that tracks down that user!); The Federal Communications Commission in the US says there is no need to further regulate the Internet (a government body saying there is enough regulation?); and Orange Partner has introduced 13 new APIs. Now, that's news to read about! Our API strategy covers mobile, web 2.0, broadband, fixed line and business. Expect much more from us over the next few months. |
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I would also like to welcome Vicky Gierat as editor of our newsletter. Vicky reports to Ruth Cattell who has just been promoted to Director of Marketing at Orange Partner. In addition, Martin Wrigley has been promoted to Director of Partner Technology and Anna Grundy has moved into the role of Director of Business Development. Raphael Goumot joined the team this month as an Evangelist. We also have new employment opportunities in our marketing team. We are looking for a Head of Marketing Initiatives and another member of our Portal Team. If you know of anyone, tell us at developers@orange-ftgroup.com. If you are going to be in Orlando May 12 - 15th, stop by and say hello at our booth at WES (the RIM/Blackberry conference). Martin Wrigley is speaking at JavaOne in San Francisco this week, we'll be at the UIQ fast-track events in Boston and San Francisco, and I will be a judge at the Mobile Innovation Awards in Atlanta in June (at the GSMA event). We have also announced our next Partner Camp, which will be October 13 - 15th in Clearwater, Florida. Register your interest with us and guarantee a place. I know it's early, but we have limited space to ensure you get personal attention.
See you next month!
Steve Glagow
Vice President - Orange Partner
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13 APIs launched at Partner Camp
from identity management to enterprise collaboration
We'd already previewed some in the Developer Play Zone, gaining some excellent feedback from you all. We'd held events in San Francisco, Paris and London where you tried them and told us what you thought.
And, after months of development and research, they're now available for you to use.
Covering identity management, personal information management, peer-to-peer communication, social networking and enterprise collaboration, the APIs are the result of months of work within different teams at Orange, brought together for the 3rd party community via Orange Partner.
Detailed information, SDKs, code samples, 'hello world' examples, mash-up demonstrations and the ability to trial and use the APIs … It's all available in the 'Access Orange APIs' section on the Orange Partner website.
Get started with our APIs, and we'll give you all the support you need.
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Orange wins e-Identity award
our first award for an API
Only a week after launching the Personal APIs, we were very pleased to win an award at the European Identity Conference in Munich (22 – 25 April).
The analyst company Kuppinger Cole and Partners awarded the European Identity Awards to honour the "outstanding Identity Management projects and innovations and improvements of standards".
Orange won the award for the "Best Identity Management project for B2B". Kuppinger Cole and Partners stated about Orange, that "their project is groundbreaking because of consistent use of federation and opening their systems to partners."
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Partner Camp - see what happened
it's over, but see the results for yourself
It was sold-out before we got there, with over 400 attendees from 28 different countries, with either a commercial or technical interest or both. Some were already working with Orange, and some weren't. Some wanted to get their product in front of the relevant Orange representative, and some wanted to take advantage of our 1-2-1 API technical support.
But if you were there, whatever you were there to do, we hope you enjoyed your 72 hours at Partner Camp.
We certainly did!
And thanks to all of you who completed and returned the post-event e-questionnaire.
We have a prize winner - Blake Fayling of Denver, Colorado, US.
Congratulations to Blake, who wins a Nokia N95.
Since we came back we've been working on the post-event website.
It's now ready, so watch our post-event video, download the session presentations (available to different levels of membership, depending on the confidential nature of the information), see the contest winners, and remind yourselves or what happened if you were there, and what you missed if you weren't.
And if you're interested in coming to our next Partner Camp (13 – 15 October in Clearwater, Florida) let us know via the website.
View the post-event website and watch the video
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What's new in the Spring Collection?
'la collection' has been launched in Paris
"We'll help you become part of 'la collection'" is one of the things announced by Yves Tyrode, a senior EVP at France Telecom to attendees at Partner Camp. It may have been the first opportunity you'd had to hear about 'la collection', and now's the time to reveal more about what it is, and what it contains.
It's France Telecom's quarterly focus on newly-launched products and services developed for the consumer and business markets. Most of the products involve 3rd parties, directly or indirectly.
The products within the Spring Collection are now featured on our site. You can download the pdf, or take a virtual tour via a web link. The choice is yours.
Within the Spring Collection we're featuring several products for the healthcare market sector, including a GSM/GPRS handset with a dedicated button equipped with an A-GPS (Assisted Global Positioning System) chipset for geolocation.
The solution includes an A-GPS platform for positioning calculation, a GIS (Geographic Information System) platform for mapping and an M2M (machine-to-machine) platform for computing data. The service uses three core networks: mobile, fixed and data. A help-line platform handles call reception and treatment.
We also have a fully-integrated, customised elderly security solution combining business and personal services, with a shared personal calendar and logbook, time stamping and third-party payment solutions. The same system gives healthcare providers and insurers an efficient tool for record-keeping and billing and increases accountability for homecare services.
Interpersonal communication features, such as media sharing, messaging, videoconferencing, remote support and an alarm system, reassure the patient and reduce feelings of isolation by offering face-to-face contact with others, while significantly improving the communication flow among all parties involved. It also helps relieve the burden on relatives and care givers.
What are these products used for?
Find out by looking at 'la collection'
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Navigating through Orange
we're working closely with our colleagues
The Orange Start-up programme and the French Orange Trials Factory programme – just two of the routes-to-market we explored with you at Partner Camp.
Both programmes are now featured on the Orange Partner site, and we encourage you to get in touch with us to see how we can involve you.
Are you a start-up with products in one or more of the following areas?
WEB and Mobile 2.0
Audience and Advertising business models and revenues
Communities
UGC
Social networking
Media & Entertainment
Enterprise 2.0
Web and Mobile Convergence
If so, you may be interested in what we could do with you with the Start-up programme.
Or if you're interested in having a supervised product trial in France, then the Orange Trials Factory could be for you. Two of the companies attending Partner Camp in Cape Canaveral in 2007 have run successful trials within France through the Trials programme.
Interested?
Find out more about the Start-Up programme
Find out more about the Orange Trial programme
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Our new-look website
find out how and why we've changed
If you take a look at www.orangepartner.com, you'll see we've made a few changes.
Firstly, we've introduced a new section: 'Access Orange APIs' to reflect the launch of our 13 APIs at Partner Camp. All of the information about all of the APIs can be found easily within this section. You don't have to go anywhere else on the site.
Secondly, as the Orange brand has become 'more than mobile', so has Orange Partner. You'll have seen this reflected at our Partner Camp event last month, with sessions and Orange representatives covering a number of internet, mobile, IPTV subjects. We're now adding more information to the Orange Partner site as we expand into these different areas of the business with 3rd parties, to make it clear about what we're looking for from you, and how we can help you produce it, and commercialise it in whatever product area you're involved.
Thirdly, we've changed the look & feel slightly, and cleaned the site up a bit. We've removed some information we knew you weren't looking at too much, and have made the site cleaner. We hope you agree!
As we're always telling you, we evolve according to what you tell us you want.
Please tell us if we're off-course – we always need to know.
Look at the Orange Partner site and see the changes
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Five new devices on the Orange Partner site
LG KP235
The LG KP235 is a clamshell phone that offers bluetooth wireless technology, a VGA camera, 5MB of internal memory for photos, video clips and games plus a speaker phone function for handsfree conversation.
Take a look at the full spec
Motorola ROKR E8
The MOTOROKR E8 comes with a back-lit touch keyboard and a novel navigation device called "Omega Wheel" for music and menu navigation. And, so that the touch wouldn't confuse you, E8 ROKR is equipped with a haptics controls, that makes the phone give you vibration feedback, whenever a key is pressed.
It's a GSM/GPRS phone with 2 megapixel camera, 262K color QVGA display, 2 GB of internal memory and microSD memory card slot, FM radio and 3.5 mm headphone jack.
Take a look at the full spec
Samsung Armani
The Samsung Armani is a head-turning fashion phone with a 2.6 Inch high colour touch screen which makes using the Armani phone & fun & visual experience. It comes with a built in music player, 3 megapixel camera & Wi-Fi technology.
Take a look at the full spec
Samsung J700
The Samsung J700 is a compact slide opening mobile phone which comes in a black coloured casing. A two Inch colour screen can be viewed when the handset is slide-open or slide-closed and the phone comes with easy access external keys for ease of use. The built in features include a 1.3 megapixel camera, video recorder, radio & music player. The J700 provides the user with up to 250 hours of battery standby time from a full charged battery. The phone supports Bluetooth® wireless technology & EDGE technology.
Take a look at the full spec
Sony Ericsson W890i
The Sony Ericsson W890i Walkman® music phone comes in an ultra slim casing and is available in a mocha brown or a sparkling silver coloured casing. The phone is in a solid bar design casing which comes with smooth edges & a metal finish. The built in features include a high quality Walkman® Music Player complete with TrackID™ & SensMe™ music features. The W890i come with 3G HSDPA technology, EDGE technology & is a quad band network phone.
Take a look at the full spec
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A market perspective
download the reports from Orange
We've pulled out a couple of articles and views we thought might be of interest to you.
They've been produced by our research team within France Telecom.
The first article is available to all members, and the second, we've reserved just for our premium members and contracted partners ...
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Smartphones faring well
Although the operating systems (OS) market is dominated by Symbian and Linux, there are significant geographic disparities.
Whereas Symbian is the uncontested leader in Western Europe, with 84.3% of the market in 2007, Research in Motion (RIM) and Microsoft dominate the North American market and Linux is way out in front in Asia with 67.5% of the market in 2007.
All members - download the one-page pdf |
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Location Based services – short term opportunities
Initial low levels of user interest, lack of services and applications and technical difficulties and legal hurdles have now been replaced with a blossoming multimedia sector, plethora of mobile apps and the emergence of GPS terminals - things are on-the-up for location based services.
Premium Members and Contracted Partners - download the two-page pdf |
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Recommended Practices for Connected Applications
read the report from the Open Mobile Terminal Platform (OMTP)
Are you familiar with the OMTP? They're an operator-sponsored forum for gathering and driving mobile terminal requirements. Orange is a member, and we're very involved with their activities through our Group Devices team.
One of the OMTP's recently-produced documents is 'Recommended Practices for Connected Applications'. Its aim is to significantly improve the mobile consumer user experience and to drive a greater adoption of 'connected' application services.
The paper is now available to you on our site, together with more information about OMTP and what they do.
We'll be featuring more from OMTP and other industry bodies in the coming months on the site and in our newsletters.
Read about OMTP and download the paper
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The Leadership Council for Developer Programs
pulling together common requirements
One of the things we hear all the time for our members is the need for different developer communities to share information of common interest to all. So we're doing something about it.
Through the Wireless Innovation Partnership (WIP), we've joined together with AT&T Dev Central, Symbian Developer Network, ACCESS Developer Network, UIQ Developer Program, Navteq Network for Developers, MotoDev Motorola Developer Network, Forum Nokia and Sony Ericsson Developer World to share common information and communicate that information through a single forum – the Leadership Council for Developer Programs.
The Council's aim is to collaborate on activities to make mobile development easier for developers. That's it.
It's in its early days – with the first meeting held at Partner Camp, but it's a start.
If there's any information / activity you feel the Council should focus on first, we'd be pleased to hear from you. Just contact developers@orange.com with 'council' in the subject line, and let us know your thoughts. Thanks.
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Focussing on the US in May
please come and say 'hello'
Where will we be in May?
We're focussing on meeting existing and potential Orange Partner members in the US this month.
Clicking on the links below will take you to a page on the Orange Partner website with more information about where we are and what we'll be up to.
We look forward to meeting you there.
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