Orange and Nokia Extend Ovi's Reach in the UK and France

Wireless carrier Orange and Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia announced today a partnership aimed at expanding the reach of Ovi services on the market in the UK and France, including the availability of Nokia's Ovi Store with Orange on these markets in 2011.

According to the two companies, the new service that emerges from their alliance should offer Orange customers using Nokia handsets faster access to more content, while widening the developer ecosystem.

Basically, Orange would be integrating Ovi content with the best solutions available via its Orange Application Shop so as to enable a simpler and more secure access to content and services.

“Our data shows that two out of every three Ovi Store users choose the simplicity of operator billing when purchasing content,” said Marco Argenti, Vice President of Media, Nokia.

“By offering more locally relevant content and the most convenient way to pay for it, we believe Nokia's Ovi Store with Orange will be a hit with consumers and provide developers with additional revenue opportunities.”

Orange and Nokia also announced that they are working together for the creation of a single sign-on for users with various mobile phones so as to ease the registration and purchasing process.

People purchasing Nokia devices in the Orange Signature range should benefit from access to a wider range of local content and applications, sourced via the Orange developer community, and made available through the Ovi Store with Orange.

Further more, users should benefit from even more simplicity and convenience through having the applications purchased from Ovi Store put on their Orange bill.

“Orange is always striving to create a great mobile multimedia experience for customers. To be successful, access to content must be simple, seamless and secure,” Paul Francois Fournier, Executive Vice President, Internet Services, Orange, commented.

“That is why we are extending our partnership with Nokia, combining innovation to create an intelligent platform that brings an enhanced experience to our customers. By joining the best of both worlds and creating this new service, we believe Orange and Nokia together will bring significant benefits to both our customers and developers.”

The two companies also announced that they plan on engaging with third party developers on the building of applications for the Ovi Store during the Orange Partner Developer Day on September 17th in London.