Nokia and Orange, the French-based global mobile operator, announced that they have signed a new deal, according to which, Orange will release ten new Nokia phones in the second half of 2008, loaded with special content and services offered by the two companies. The handsets will come as part of Orange's Signature line-up of mobile products that includes, among other devices, the HTC Touch Diamond (which should be released in June).

This new Nokia-Orange deal comes as an extension to another agreement, signed by the Finnish and the French giants back in February, during MWC 2008.

There are no details about what the new Nokia-Orange phones will be like, neither about where exactly they will be launched - there will be "nine major markets", yet unspecified. Anyway, Nokia said that the handsets would offer easy access (with only one touch of a button) to services like Nokia Maps, the N-Gage platform, Orange games and Orange Music Store. Therefore, most of the new phones will probably be mid to high-end.

Olaf Swantee, EVP of Orange's Personal Communications Services, declared in a press release issued today: "This collaboration underlines Orange's drive to create strategic partnerships that will give customers the best possible mobile multimedia experience in the simplest way."

"We are pleased to create this strategic partnership with Orange and believe that the combination of Signature and Ovi services will extend and enrich consumer choice. We also expect our close collaboration to extend beyond the initial focus areas of music, games, maps and advertising to include other services over time", added Kai Öistämö, EVP, Devices, Nokia.

A good to know thing about the collaboration between Nokia and Orange is that the companies want to integrate GPS and navigation features to a wider range of phones. Nokia Maps, for example, will be used by about 10 million Orange subscribers by the end of 2010 - or at least that's what the two telecommunication companies wish for.