Orange unhappy with Nokia's new direction

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Orange unhappy with Nokia's new direction

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By Editorial Team (Friday, 31st August 2007)

A leaked memo has exposed a growing rift between two of the biggest companies in the mobile phone industry, Orange and Nokia.

The document reveals the position held by Orange on Nokia's move into the mobile multimedia market, announced this week with the launch of its new online music store, gaming service and advanced handsets, in particular the flagship N81 device.

Several industry commentators had speculated that the move was likely to make network providers uncomfortable, a prediction which seems to have been confirmed by the leaked document, which suggests that the two companies should trial different music stores on separate versions of the N81, Mobile Today reports.

"It's massively competitive against us. Nokia has developed this entirely in isolation from us and has yet to show us a working model," an Orange source told the website.

The Finnish firm has already declined a request from Orange to remove its new music product from the operator's allocation of N81 handsets. Orange's own music store currently sells about 100,000 downloads each month.

Although many experts had expected Nokia's move to create friction in the industry, the general consensus was that Apple, rather than Orange, would be the new product's main competitor. The Times and other publications have seen Nokia's music store as a direct challenge to flagship Apple products such as iTunes and the new iPhone.