IMHO: iPhone deal puts Orange back on the map

IMHO: iPhone deal puts Orange back on the map

Today Orange announced that it will start selling iPhone 3G and 3G S in the UK later this year, ending O2's exclusive deal. It's a great day for iPhone users who have been unimpressed by O2's patchy 3G network.

It's also a great day for Orange, which seems to have finally plotted a course out of the gadget wilderness.

Back in 2000, when O2 was dull old BT Cellnet and the Millennium Dome was still a white elephant, Orange was the unchallenged network of cutting-edge cool. I was a newbie at Stuff, and stunned to be the recipient of an Orange Videophone. I didn't have anyone to call of course - these were the days before 3G - before GPRS, even - and the £1200 Videophone used some fancy technology known as HSCSD to deliver speed of about 30kbps. Not really enough for video, but that didn't stop Orange's boffins from trying. And we loved them for it.  

It's hard to pinpoint where it all went wrong for Orange, but I put it somewhere in between making terribly annoying cinema ads and refusing to offer all-you-can-eat 3G access. But just as important was O2's rebranding, its music venue sponsorship, and its snagging of the iPhone exclusive - which made it network of choice for the yoof (or at least the ageing 'middle youth' who don't think twice about splurging £45 a month on a mobile contract.)

Not that Orange has disappeared. It's quietly built the best 3G network in the UK - just compare OFCOM's 3G maps for O2 and Orange (NB this link is a PDF download).

Of course, a 3G connection is more important to iPhone users than most, because the internet is so central to the iPhone experience - whether you're checking email, browsing or just downloading another app you'll never use.

Now, with the iPhone to hook up to its network, and a merger with T-Mobile on the cards, Orange looks set to leapfrog O2.

Size isn't everything, of course. Fortunately, Orange still has enough of that Videophone DNA left to satisfy those avant-gadgeteers concerned by the iPhone's tedious ubiquity. Fancy something different? Try the iPhone's best rival, the graphite HTC Hero - or the ridiculously cool (or simply ridiculous?) LG GD910 watchphone. Both Orange exclusives (of sorts) - and proof that Apples aren't the only fruit.