Orange chimes in with SPV E200

IN A RASH of announcements timed to co-incide with the ITU show in Geneva, Switzerland - which happens every four years - Orange has launched the first device to boast the Windows Mobile OS.

Other launches include two 3G handsets - the A835 from Motorola and the U15 from Siemens. The Orange SPV E200 is due for release in five countries (including France and the UK) during November so it should be on time for the Yuletide shopping season.

The major differences over the original SPV include support for Bluetooth and an integrated camera. Features which shouldn't have been missing in the first place.

Significantly this announcement had no details of pricing and the company stated that this may vary from country to country. The

INQ has already been informed, fo example, that another recent launch - the N-Gage from Nokia - is available in Germany for just 1 Euro from O2 whereas it retails for $300 in the USA.

The E200 smartphone was accompanied by a flurry of market research from Orange and Microsoft designed to show that the SPV raises operator revenues from data services.

The figres look well fluffy but The INQ likes the fact that since SPV users can downoad their entire Outlook contacts database to their mobile phones, they make more voice calls.

Orange is also offering a backup service to save this valuable addressbook information should the customer lose his or her mobile phone [That ever happened to you Tone? Ed.] . µ