The Orange San Francisco costs £99 ($153) and is available with Orange’s pay-as-you-go plans. It runs Android 2.1 and has WiFi, Bluetooth, and 3G connectivity. It offers 150MB of internal storage and a 2GB microSD card and can support up to 32GB micrOSD cards. The device offers a touchscreen display, although its size and resolution weren’t noted by Orange. A 3 megapixel camera is included on the back of the phone, and it’s rated for 4 hours of talk time.

The San Francisco is available beginning this week in Orange shops, and online at www.orange.co.uk.

Orange has claimed that it has broken sales records with its release of the Orange iPhone 3G and 3GS, selling 30,000 units in the first day of release.

“As of 4pm today Orange had sold more than30,000 iPhones across the UK – smashing what we believe is the previously published first day sales records for a handset in the UK.”

However, it’s unclear how this stacks up against rival networks, including O2′s iPhone sales figures, as most don’t publish such numbers.

O2 was rumoured to have sold 8,000 iPhones (although only the 2G version) on its first day of sales, but the network has told TechRadar that it was significantly more, although declined to give an actual figure.

Top app

Orange’s first UK iPhone app, for links to Orange Wednesdays services, has also leapt to the top of the charts, with the network stating that it is top of the entertainment app charts, and second in the overall free applications run down.

Hardly surprising given the ease of which it give two for one cinema tickets, although don’t forget this won’t work with iPhones on O2.

Whether it has broken records or not, the early sales of the iPhone for Orange are encouraging in a market that has been offered access to the device for over two years.

It will be interesting to note whether Vodafone manages similar sales when it releases the iPhone early next year, or whether Orange has stolen the ‘non-O2′ iPhone crown.

via  techradar

After officially announcing that it would carry the iPhone (thus ending O2’s exclusivity), Orange UK has recently unveiled the exact release date of its iPhone: November 10.

Orange will offer both the iPhone 3G and the iPhone 3GS, for various prices – from free to £225 ($369), depending on the length of the contract and the data plan you’re choosing.

Customers will also be able to buy the iPhone on Pay As You Go at the following prices: £343 for the iPhone 3G 8GB; £440 for the iPhone 3GS 16GB; £539 for the iPhone 3GS 32GB.

You can visit Orange UK’s official website to see the exact prices and plans.

Orange aside, 3 UK has also announced its intentions to sell the iPhone. There aren’t clear details about this, but 3’s CEO said that they’re hoping to have the iPhone in 2010.

As you probably know already O2 UK no longer claims the iPhone exclusivity and Orange is the second UK carrier to offer the device in its UK network. The latest piece of intel however has 10 November as the most probable release date.

In a quite tight-lipped manner Orange UK recently announced their agreement with Apple to offer iPhone 3G and 3GS. Plans and release date were kept a secret until today when Guardian UK made the release date public.

You may remember that in a 24-hour timeframe both Orange and Vodafone announced their agreements with Apple to offer iPhone 3G and 3GS through their networks.

So as Guardian UK puts it, Orange UK will start offering iPhone 3G and 3GS on 10 November, the exact day when the two-year O2 exclusive deal with Apple expires. Don’t get too excited just yet as there won’t be an iPhone price war with pricing projected to be the same as that of O2 UK. Still Orange will offer it with an “added value plan” giving users the additional benefits of some bonus accessories or pre-loaded applications.

At this point more than 200 000 users have registered their interest in getting the iPhone from Orange even though the carrier plans are not even announced yet. The Orange iPhones will be sold through Orange stores, Phones4U and Carphone Warehouse in only two weeks time.

It may not be coming to Orange UK but the Romania Orange clients are sure to get the HTC HD2 in December according to Razvan Sturza, M2M Proposition manager Orange:

“We expect to sell a few thousand units and in December we will launch        HTC HD2. This model is in stock but does not have applications Windows Mobile 6.5 installed yet”

And According to the marketing director of Microsoft Romania, Dan Bulucea, sales of Windows Mobile phones in Romania have doubled since last year.

Well well, turns out rumors sometimes do come true. The widely speculated end to O2′s exclusivity of the iPhone is now upon us and Orange is the first competitor to throw its hat into the ring. The company has not yet released tariff pricing, but there’s a tantalizingly small release window, as availability is promised “later this year.” At least there’s finally some competition when it comes to the iPhone in the UK, and we can also probably look forward to T-Mobile joining in on the fun. Let the price war begin!

Orange has announced that it will begin offering Motorola’s first Android smartphone next month. The new handset, which will be called the DEXT in Europe, is based upon the Motorola CLIQ that was announced for T-Mobile USA last week. It will be available in early October free for customers with a two year contract and a 34.26 GBP per month plan.

The Android powered QWERTY smartphone features a large touchscreen display and offers Motorola’s MOTOBLUR user interface for simple social networking and messaging. Other notable features include a 5 megapixel shooter for pics and video, GPS navigation, and 3G connectivity.

Specifications for the Motorola DEXT

Operating System Android 1.5

Band GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz, UMTS 900/1700/2100

Data GPRS/EDGE/HSDPA/WiFi

Size 114mm x 58mm x 15.6mm (2.2in x 4.5in x 0.6in)

Weight 163g (5.7oz)

Battery 1420mAh

Battery Life Not specified

Main Display HVGA (320 x 480 pixels) touchscreen

Camera 5.0 megapixel autofocus

Video Record/Playback 24fps

Messaging SMS/MMS/IM

Email IMAP4/POP3/Exchange

Bluetooth Yes

Memory microSD card slot (2GB max included)

Availability October, 2009 (manufacturer’s estimate)

Other GPS, e-compass, social networking integration, MOTOBLUR