Its naked price should be less than 250 euros

A signed Tablet Orange. It is one of the major projects of the French historical operator for this term. France Telecom account distribute at least three of these new connected devices by the end of the year, to the plenty of sales at Christmas. Perhaps there will be the iPad, if Apple negotiations lead to a compromise not too expensive for the operator. So far, Orange merely to demonstrations in some shops, and market special packages. The group will also distribute at least one upcoming competing tablets (read below). Finally, he will make his own by a large Asian manufacturer.

This equipped with tablet of the Google Android operating system will be Office 3 G. The interest of an operator is of course to create subscriptions. Its naked price should be less than 250 euros. Packages, in discussion, similar to those of the key 3 G (subscriptions with flow overruns) rather than those of the iPad (on the day, the volume of data). If the client agrees on a year or two, its price will therefore fall below 100 euros. In comparison, the least expensive iPad 3 G model sells for 599 euros and one subsidizes.

Orange aims to "democratize" tablets, as he did previously with "netbooks" to 120 euros in Slovakia, and more recently with "smartphones". Indeed, the operator sells a 3 G mobile signed his name, the Boston since April. Built in China, and already turning under Android, it costs just 120 euros to produce and can therefore be marketed from 1 euro. It is also available in prepaid mode. It is a true "smartphone" touch, with a multi-touch touch screen, access to the Android (67.000 applications) store, and after-sales service. So far it has not put on sale in France, but in Spain, the Portugal, in Poland, in Slovakia, in Austria and in Romania. It is apparently a tobacco in Europe: more than 100,000 copies have been sold in less than five months. The vein is not near exhaust for Orange, since the Group provides for Christmas, in Europe, more than 45 of its sales of terminals be "smartphones".

Regain control with Apple

Orange is not his first test for tablets. But the Tabbee, launched a year and a half, has not attracted the masses. This House innovation is already historical curiosity, while shelf rhymes with vast application ecosystem. Exiting a Tablet Android, the operator wants to regain control. Because in France Telecom, which is one of the best sellers of iPhone in the world, it is feared to be feet and fists related to Apple. The firm Apple is deemed to impose unfair conditions on operators, of sursubventions, millimeter advertising campaigns, etc. And it captures the added value in negotiating with publishers content, and then take directly the bank account of purchasers of applications. Orange manufactures cards micro-SIM for the iPad, but does not have the right to block to build customer loyalty. In General, the major operators have lost a bit of their luster to manufacturers since the advent of "smartphones". People enter the shops with leading non-plus a package, but one of these objects of desire. His signature Orange seeks to redefine the balance of power.