Orange could refuse to sell key Nokia handset after music store row - report |
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Tue, 28 Aug 2007 07:13
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HELSINKI (Thomson Financial) - Orange could refuse to sell a key Nokia handset in the UK if the Finnish mobile phone maker does not agree to an 'open and transparent trial' of its new music download service, according to The Independent.Citing a memo sent by the France Telecom mobile phone unit to Nokia executives, the newspaper said the operator has threatened not to offer the N81 -- the flagship handset in the launch of Nokia's online music store -- to its 16 mln customers in the UK.Orange wants to evaluate the performance of the Nokia music store alongside its own music download service service.'We are still to see a working demo of the music store,' the memo read.'We would expect a significant level of customer confusion and increased calls to customer services as a result of housing both players on a device and our data tariffs would be negatively impacted as they were not designed to deal with such large individual music files.'In short, if this was an Orange service, we would definitely not launch yet to protect our customer experience.'The memo said that Orange 'will regrettably be forced to derange' the N81 if Nokia does not agree to a trial before Aug 31.Nokia is to unveil its music store and a series of devices, including the N81, in London tomorrow. The service is widely expected to launch in the UK in November, before being rolled out to other markets.james.etheridge@thomson.comje/nesCOPYRIGHTCopyright AFX News Limited 2007. All rights reserved.The copying, republication or redistribution of AFX News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of AFX News.
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