Orange plans 5 Android handsets in 2009

THe HTC Hero - coming to Orange?
THe HTC Hero - coming to Orange?

Orange France has told the world that it will be going to stock a wide range of Android handsets in 2009, with slew coming from a variety of manufacturers.

Orange France has pledged to announce a second and third handset sporting Android in the summer, after it began stocking the re-badged HTC H1 phone, the Dream.

The company has intimated that the HTC Hero will be next in line for an Android launch, a handset that's been leaked over the internet for some time and bears a slight resemblance to the HTC Magic.

Quickly extended

However it will then be quickly followed by another handset a few weeks later, which Orange France has suggested will extend the range for form factors we've seen from Android mobile phones, and will also be joined by phones from Sony Ericsson, Samsung, LG and Motorola for the French network.

Given that Orange hasn't had one of the 'big hitting' handsets as an exclusive in the UK, like O2 with the iPhone or Vodafone with the BlackBerry Storm, it could do with nabbing one of the exclusive Android phones.

Orange France has also pointed to the 'low-cost' nature of the Android platform, leading to cheaper handsets, and the fact the operator receives a significant portion of the revenue from the Android Market application store, as a good reason to bet big on Google's mobile platform.

Via Mobinaute (translated)

Gareth Beavis
Formerly Global Editor in Chief

Gareth has been part of the consumer technology world in a career spanning three decades. He started life as a staff writer on the fledgling TechRadar, and has grown with the site (primarily as phones, tablets and wearables editor) until becoming Global Editor in Chief in 2018. Gareth has written over 4,000 articles for TechRadar, has contributed expert insight to a number of other publications, chaired panels on zeitgeist technologies, presented at the Gadget Show Live as well as representing the brand on TV and radio for multiple channels including Sky, BBC, ITV and Al-Jazeera. Passionate about fitness, he can bore anyone rigid about stress management, sleep tracking, heart rate variance as well as bemoaning something about the latest iPhone, Galaxy or OLED TV.