- The partnership will bring Netvibes’ widget platform to millions of mobile users across Europe, Middle East and Africa for the first time
- Content providers will have access to Orange’s 130 million mobile customers
Orange and Netvibes today announced a partnership to bring the world’s largest collection of mobile widgets to all types of mobile phone user across an extensive range of handsets. Netvibes’ huge catalogue of nearly 200,000 real-time widgets will be available on Orange widgets, a service featuring on 80% of handsets shipped by Orange. It will also be available on djinngo mobile, an Orange service open to any mobile phone user in the world. And soon, mobile widgets will be available to Orange customers in the recently launched Orange Application Shop
The widget collection, known as Netvibes Ecosystem, is a library of popular widgets from the leading content providers around the world. Customers will access Orange widgets with one click from the Orange homescreen. The service has a carousel from which they can chose their favourite widgets and will be available on devices from the majority of handset companies, including basic phones right up to the most sophisticated smartphones.
Orange widgets first launched in July 2009 and was designed to be quick and easy to use – even for customers totally unfamiliar with mobile multi-media services. By providing access to the best, most popular local content, in customers’ own language, Orange is seeking to open a new mobile widget marketplace for everyone.
By bringing a user-friendly widget service to the mobile mass market, Orange is also giving content developers access to an entirely new market of users. To facilitate this, Orange is creating a software developer kit to ensure a simple and efficient process for developers to create new and value-adding widgets.
Commenting on the partnership, Paul-François Fournier, Executive Vice-President, Audience and Advertising, Orange said: “As the largest independent provider of real time widgets across 90 languages, Netvibes was the ideal partner for us. Our strategy is to make mobile widgets a reality for everyone – not just the mobile multimedia fans with sophisticated smartphones. Our approach is to offer diverse local content, in all languages, with an intuitive and simple experience that will appeal to all. Netvibes’ catalogue includes widgets from content developers around the world and this was important for us as we will be offering widgets across Europe, Middle East and Africa”.
“Our vision is to personalize the entire online world and empower consumers to customize their entire Web experience. Thanks to our partnership with Orange, we are bringing personalized widgets to millions of consumers everywhere,” said Freddy Mini, CEO Netvibes. “The era of the real-time, personalized Web has truly begun.”
While the partnership will focus initially on mobile widgets, the partners will draw on Orange’s leadership in broadband internet and IPTV to extend the experience across other screens.
How do customers access widgets from Orange?
Widgets are an ‘out of the box’ experience, meaning customers can simply turn on their phone and choose from a wide range of content-driven services available through what we call the “Orange Widgets”: an on-device client aimed at customers who would like a very simple and straightforward selection of content-driven multimedia services accessed through widgets.
On low-end to mid-end devices, widgets are served though an embedded widget player named “Orange widgets”.
On mid-end to high-end devices, widgets will be served through the Orange Application shop.
Customers will either have instant access to Orange Widgets straight from their Orange homescreen and / or from the main menu of the phone.
The widget selection is then made by choosing the appropriate widget icon within the widget player.
Widgets deliver useful information-led services, like weather reports, news, sports results, encyclopedia definitions and horoscopes one or two clicks always from the homescreen.
In the future we will begin to integrate a selection of widgets with the Homescreen of our Signature devices that customers can easily launch with one click.
How will Orange help developers/publishers to create widgets and Apps.
Orange will offer the widgets SDK, which is a generic toolkit to create widgets and apps.
3rd parties will be able to create widgets that will run in the widget player (Orange Widgets/Djinngo mobile) and can be easily packaged into standalone apps to be distributed in the Application shop
What is the difference between the Orange Widgets and Djinngo ?
Orange Widgets is the mobile client through which Orange customers can access widgets.
It is a widget service dedicated to Orange mobile customers.
Djinngo is an operator-agnostic widget solution provided by Orange that shares the same platform as the Orange Widget Player. Customers can download the Djinngo service onto their mobile, and use the widgets within it, irrespective of which operator they are with.
Is Orange Widgets available across all Orange handsets?
Orange is working to be able to offer its customers a widget experience across 80% of its Signature phones capturing the niche and mass-market customer base.
How will the customers’ experience of widgets compare with that of the Application Shop?
Widgets and apps are similar objects aiming to enhance the multimedia capabilities of the mobile phones of our customers with some slight differences in terms of scope, technology, richness.
Whether it’s an app that can provide a rich search experience with GPS, or a widget for quick and easy access to information, Orange is helping customers unleash the power of their mobile phone in an infinite number of ways.
Widgets are offered to consumers on 80% of Orange devices via an icon on the Homescreen or in the menu called ‘Orange Widgets’.
- They are mini-applications with a very simple user interface through which consumers can gain access to basic, regularly-updated information; horoscopes, news, sports results, encyclopedia, traffic alerts, weather reports …
- They are usually free for the consumer to download and use (only limited data fees)
- A number of widgets (20 to 30) selected by Orange will be highlighted to customers via Orange Widgets. They will also be able to click straight through to a wider catalogue which will include the Netvibes widgets.
Applications or “Apps” are offered to consumers on a wide range of low-end, mid-end and high-end devices through the App Shop client on the Homescreen.
- They consist of games, e-books, calendars, maps, recipes, calculators, money converters and more.
- Some are free but most are paid-for by the consumer.
- There’s a regularly-updated selection available to the consumer to select and use.
Customers can access around 5000 games, apps, ringtones and wallpapers through the Orange App Shop on-device client, all of which will have been selected by Orange.
Why this partnership with Netvibes?
A Widget ecosystem implies a diverse and rich catalogue of content, developers and powerful distribution channels. With this in mind Orange sought out a partner to provide a part of the catalogue of content and a partner which was pertinent to incentive developers to develop on mobile. Netvibes as a leading player in the Widget market is an ideal partner.
What does the partnership comprise?
The contract is built on a partnership principle. At the beginning, Netvibes will bring its expertise on widgets and ecosystem and Orange will bring expertise on mobile technology and user experience.
Moving forward, the two partners commit to work together on a multiscreen widget strategy with a short term focus on mobile interfaces.
What will this partnership bring to end users ?
The idea of the agreement is to democratize content access on all ranges of mobile and not only to the most advanced devices. Thanks to this partnership, Orange will be able to offer to its customers nearly 200,000 widgets available in 90 languages. This agreement contributes towards the Orange mission to offer localized and value added content and services to all its affiliates.
Will you have a revenue share agreement? What is the business model?
The first step in the implementation is to integrate access to the huge widget catalogue into Orange Widgets
Access to Orange Widgets will be included in Orange mobile offers linked to countries data offers.
When will the services be launched and in which countries?
The widgets from Netvibes will be made available to Orange customers via Orange Widgets in the next few weeks.
You say you want to develop new services on other screens. What will you focus on and what’s coming next?
The first step of the implementation focuses on Orange Widgets.
But we also include in the scope of the partnership screens like TV and tabbee.
Will you integrate advertising?
We have a number of routes to offer monetisation options including advertising integration and micro payment capabilities.
How are Netvibes widgets served to Orange Mobile devices? Are these the same widgets as found on Netvibes.com?
Orange mobile widgets are provided and powered by “Netvibes for Enterprise”, the leading enterprise-class widget and dashboard publishing platform. Netvibes for Enterprise lets Orange tap into a database of more than 188,000 different widgets and official content feeds from the Netvibes Ecosystem, the world’s largest library of universal, cross-platform widgets.
How is Netvibes technology integrated with the Orange mobile platform? Was this a joint development project between Orange and Netvibes?
- Netvibes has been working in joint development with Orange since Q2, 2009, to integrate the Netvibes Ecosystem with the “Orange Widgets” library found on 80% of Orange mobile devices and “djinngo mobile”, the Orange widget service that’s open to virtually any mobile phone user in the world.
- With this new strategic partnership, Netvibes widgets will soon be available to more than 130M Orange mobile customers across Europe, Middle East and Africa.
Will Netvibes be acquired by Orange?
This is a strategic partnership, not a M&A announcement.
When will we be able to see the solution? How can they access the widgets?
- Netvibes widgets will soon be available to more than 130M Orange mobile customers across Europe, Middle East and Africa.
- Users will soon be able to access Netvibes widgets just like any other Orange widget, either from “Orange Widgets”, the service featured on 80% of Orange handsets, or “djinngo mobile”, the Orange widget service that’s open to virtually any mobile phone user in the world.
Will we see Netvibes widgets for Orange broadband Internet and IPTV customers?
- The partnership is initially focused on offering mobile widgets to Orange customers. However, Orange may someday expand this offering to broadband internet and IPTV customers to expand their widget experience across TVs, PCs, tablets, etc.
Where can developers learn more about developing widgets for the Netvibes Ecosystem or for Orange Mobile?
- Developers who want to build widgets for the Netvibes Ecosystem and Orange Mobile can visit the Netvibes developers site (dev.netvibes.com) for more information. Netvibes Ecosystem’s widget database will soon include a new section specifically for “Widgets by Orange” as part of this partnership.
- Furthermore, Orange will soon offer an Orange Mobile SDK and developer community specifically for building widgets for Orange mobile devices.
For more information, feel free to visit www.djinngo.com and follow @djinngo & @netvibes on Twitter.
Related posts:
- Going mobile: netvibes in your pocket
- Netvibes for mobile, iPhone and iPod touch get Multiple Personalized Pages
- Netvibes Powers T-Online.de, Germany’s Largest Portal
Lees meer..
This week end it’s Valentine’s Day, time to declare your love to your partner! Don’t hesitate to share this lovely 
