Orange teams up with Handspring for smarter phones

By Matt Whipp

Posted on 16 Apr 2003 at 12:13

Handspring and Orange have announced they will work together to provide data-enabled phones to work out of the box.

In a recent survey, research firm Canalys predicted that smart phones would outsell handhelds this year, even though both markets would increase. However, the company warned that smart phone manufacturers would have to team up with network operators to utilise their better marketing and customer relations to provide an improved out-of-the box experience for consumers.

Chris Jones, senior analyst and director at Canalys said: 'For [smart phone] vendors to succeed they need to develop good relationships with mobile network operators, in as many countries as possible.The leading phone handset brands already have these and this is a positive move on Handspring's part.'

Indeed, Handspring is looking to do just this, integrating compatibility with Orange's back-end network systems and data services right into its Communicator devices.

Handspring launched its Treo Communicators in the UK on the mmO2 network (then BT Cellnet) in April of last year.

The announcement follows Handspring's tie-up in the US with network operator Sprint where a similar relationship is in place.