Omio News Blog

Orange: Q2 2011 release for Sony Ericsson XPERIA Play, XPERIA Neo, exclusive Black XPERIA Arc

Orange have been confirmed in a press release to be ranging the eagerly awaited Android phones from Sony Ericsson. Due for release in the second quarter of 2011 are the impossibly thin Sony Ericsson XPERIA Arc, the HD video-centric Sony Ericsson XPERIA Neo and of course, the Playstation Certified XPERIA Play.

Orange also announced that they have exclusive rights to the black variant of the XPERIA Arc….they do like their colourways, as do we! We are currently at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona play testing the new handsets and will be posting up our impressions, pics and videos!

Prices and plans are not yet available, but as soon as we have them we’ll post them to the deals page.

Apple iPhone 4 16GB Now FREE On Orange £45 Per Month Plans

UPDATE: Turns out that this is just a weekend long offer, so fill your boots with some cheap iPhone deals before they’re gone on Monday!

Apple’s iPhone 4  now available absolutely free on Orange £45 and above plans, courtesy of Mobiles.co.uk.  This brings the handset cost, or lack thereof, in line with similar existing deals on Vodafone, but consumers can be comforted by the fact that they are joining a provider touted as having the widest network coverage in the UK.

£45 a month on Orange will get you a shiny new completely free handset, 1200 anytime cross-network minutes, unlimited texts and a generous 750MB data allowance for all your mobile media demands.  Those looking for a cheaper tariff can also rejoice in the fact that handset prices have been dropped competitively across the other price plans.  The table below shows the previous ‘standard’ rates with the new ‘promotional’ rates below.  Go to Omio’s deals page for further details.

The merger last year between Orange and T-Mobile under the company  ‘Everything Everywhere’ created the UK’s largest mobile network with over 40% of the market.  ‘Everything Everywhere’ also encapsulates Three’s expansive 3G network, meaning customers will have the widest voice and data coverage in the country.

The Apple iPhone 4 itself needs little in the way of introduction, this sleek shiny touchscreen handset incorporates exceptional design, courtesy of Apple’s British design guru Jonathan Ives, and it’s widely praised, intuitive and downright swooshy IOS software continues to gain fans, including, (as you may have seen in the news this week), none other than Nokia’s head honcho CEO, Stephen Elop!

The 5 megapixel camera with built in flash also handles HD video recording at 720p.  On-the-fly editing is a doddle with iMovie, and everything looks incredible on the 3.5” 960×640 pixel ‘Retina Display’.  Users can make video calls to other iPhone 4’s via Apple’s own Facetime, or also via the popular free Skype app.  And speaking of apps, Apple is still king of the castle.  The App Store has currently over 400,000 apps available, and this year hit the 10 billion sold mark.  The handset is the proud receiver of T3 Magazine’s ‘Commuter Gadget of the Year 2010’ having provided hours of relief from the daily commute via its many many fun games and the familiar iPod music player.

We’ll continue to keep you informed about the latest mobile phone bargains, feel free to browse the other offers available for iPhone on Omio’s mobile deals page.

Orange join forces with Barclaycard to bring wireless payment to the mobile phone

The merged companies of T-Mobile and Orange have double teamed with credit card maker’s Barclaycard to offer near field communion money transactions, by the summertime.

There are over 40,000 stores on the high-street already geared up for the contactless NFC payment method, where just holding the phone up to the electronic reader allows for the payment of goods; in much the same way as the London underground Oyster card.

The shops currently running the Barclaycard near field communication scheme are Pret a Manger, EAT, Little Chef and soon the Co-Op, with many more being planned.

Orange will be the first to run with this new partnership and technology, with T-Mobile slowly gaining the ability within time.

A number of NFC enabled mobile phones are in production by many different handset manufacturers, where the most popular of which has to be the Samsung made Google Nexus S which replaced the HTC manufactured Google Nexus One mobile phone.

Check out our full range of Google Nexus S deals at OMIO

Three announces the Apple iPad is available on a contract from today

Three is now selling the Apple iPad, from £199 on a £25 monthly tariff with a 15GB data allowance.

Three has joined both T-Mobile and Orange in selling the iPad from today onwards, at the same prices as the two parts of Everything Everywhere – only with a 15GB Internet browsing limit, instead of the 2GB that Orange and T-Mobile allow.

All three mobile phone networks have the Apple iPads at the same cost of £199 for the 16GB version, £249 for the 32GB model and £349 for the 16GB version with Apple selling the same 16GB for £529.

Three’s data allowance is clearly much higher than Orange and T-Mobile’s, for the same price and on the same tariff cost, which can be used at any time where 1GB of the 2GB EverythingEverywhere web surfing bundle can only be used in off-peak hours.

Check out the full range of Apple iPad deals at OMIO

Apple iPad on Orange and T-Mobile: On Sale From 3rd December

Apple’s iPad is finally launching on a range of pay monthly contracts from this Friday 3rd December, with Orange and T-Mobile to make the device available both online and in stores.

The forthcoming Apple iPad deals are available from £199 with the 16GB model sporting Wi-Fi and 3G on a two-year £25 per month plan whilst the 32GB version of the device costs £249, whilst the hefty 64GB retails for £299.

Pay As You Go options for a 16GB iPad on T-Mobile is £529.99, with a sliding data allowance of 500MB per day, 1GB per week and 2GB for month for £2, £7 and £15 respectively.

With the smallest SIM-free iPad 3G costing just 99p less at £529 (or £489 for a refurbished model) from Apple directly and the tablet topping shoppers’ must-have lists, these bargain contract deals from the Everything Everywhere gang are likely to prove popular in the run-up to Christmas.

With Three set to offer their own range of iPad contracts and Tesco enabling consumers to put the pricey touchscreen slab on interest-free ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ for six months on their branded credit card, there will be plenty of ways to get your mitts on a shiny new tablet this winter.

Everything Everywhere announces Apple iPad prices and plans

Both T-Mobile and Orange have now separately unveiled their ‘more affordable prices’ for the Apple iPad, started from £199 with a £25 monthly tariff attached.

The two companies that make up EverythingEverywhere are selling the Apple iPad at a much lower cost than the Apple Store, who currently offers the 16GB iPad with Wi-Fi + 3G for £529.

Orange are also selling the other capacities of the Apple tablet, with the 32GB version costing £249 and the 64GB model being priced at £529 – where T-Mobile are only retailing the 16GB version.

Both networks are bundling in a 1GB data allowance for use at any time, along with another 1GB for off peak use.

No dates have been confirmed by either network as to when the Apple iPad device will be arriving, but the prices are a good start – now it’s Three’s turn.

Check out the full range of Apple iPad deals at OMIO

Three also to sell the Apple iPad cheaply

Three has announced they too will be offering ‘more affordable prices’ for the Apple iPad and on a contract, in an identical statement to both T-Mobile and Orange.

Three companies have now unveiled in the next few months they will be selling the iPad at a lower cost than the Apple Store can currently offer and on a contract too, in much the same way as mobile networks can afford to offer a £500 handset for free.

Three haven’t confirmed any prices yet, nor has Orange or T-Mobile but they at least have provided a link to register interest which Three haven’t as yet.

Out of all of the networks Three currently has the cheapest price for the 16GB iPhone 4, at nearly a third of the cost of the nearest competitor – where it’s been rumoured Orange could be selling the Apple iPad at £200.  

With this theory in mind, Three could very well undercut EverythingEverywhere and sell the iPad at £150 or even £100 as the iPhone 4 currently costs £499 from Apple directly. 

Check out the full range of Apple iPad deals at OMIO

Everything Everywhere to sell the Apple iPad cheaply

Both T-Mobile and Orange have separately announced they will be offering ‘more affordable prices’ for the Apple iPad, but only when purchased with a data service plan.

It appears the two companies that make up EverythingEverywhere will be selling in the next few months the iPad at a lower cost than Apple Store currently does, only on a contract in much the same way as the networks can offer the latest mobile phone for free.

Apple currently sells the 16GB iPad with Wi-Fi + 3G for £529 and although Orange will still add a fee for the Apple tablet, it’s been noted on What Mobile this could be as little as £200 – less than half the price SIM free.

No confirmed prices have been made public by either network, only that they will be offering the iPad at a better price and Orange has provided a link to register interest – seen here.

Orange San Francisco: Stylish Sub-£100 Android Handset Launched

Orange’s choice to name their new handset after the cosmopolitan centre of cool that is San Francisco is hardly a surprise.

Fun, funky and filled with things to do like its namesake, the Orange San Francisco shows that Android on a budget doesn’t have to mean a handset constructed from pipe cleaners and gaffer tape, offering a phone that is a looker whilst remaining feature rich.

Sporting Android 2.1 and a 3-megapixel camera, this ZTE-produced device is imbued with all manner of Orange-exclusive perks including 2-for-1 cinema tickets through Orange Wednesdays, leveraging the San Francisco’s internal GPS to power Orange’s own Maps service.

Available on prepay for only £99 on a Dolphin tariff, the San Francisco marks the fruity network’s renewed effort to dominate the affordable Android handset market. With an MP3 player, built-in FM radio keeping on top of entertainment whilst Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 3G+ handle connectivity, the San Francisco is equipped with 2GB of memory via an SD card out of the box, and room for up to 32GB.

Phil Roberson, Orange’s Director of Devices, said : “The San Francisco is the first in a series of affordable Android devices we have planned for Orange. Combining its great functionality with our pay as you go price plans, really does offer users tremendous value for money”.

Available from this week, let Conor from Orange show you just what the San Francisco can do…

Orange Improves Prepay Packages, Offers Top-Up Perks

It’s no longer just smartphone fans on top-end contracts that are getting offered free stuff, as Orange have rolled out a series of top-up perks to benefit their prepay users.

Offering greater value for money to their animal-themed tariffs, Orange shoppers will get rewards for topping up as little as a fiver, as well as lower call rates and free international calling minutes depending on the package.

Music loving Monkey tariff users can add to the unlimited free music access by snagging a daily internet pass and free UK texts for adding at least £5 to their credit, whilst chatty Canary tariff owners get 100 more free evening and weekend texts when they add a tenner onto their account, on top of the 100 call minutes they already receive.

The intriguingly-spelled Racoon tariff keeps things easy – allowing prepay owners to enjoy cheap calls as the per minute cost falls to just 12p, whilst intrepid Camel PAYG customers can get free international minutes from just topping up.

On top of all the above, an offer of Unlimited Text bundle for a £5 top-up is extended to Dolphin and Monkey PAYG package owners, taking them slowly but subtly into pay monthly territory…

Pippa Dunn, Vice President of Orange Propositions said:

“We have enhanced our Pay As You Go animal packages to ensure we meet our customers’ changing needs and continuously provide good value. We are committed to offering customers packages that are tailored to their specific lifestyles – from music to free international calls.”

Great to the prepay customers getting a similar level of love as contact owners on Orange. Other networks would do well to follow suit…