After Vodafone and then O2, Twitter is now re-enabling in-bound SMS tweets for another UK carrier, Orange, but this deal goes farther than that…
— Twitpic clone (UK): Via the same shortcode (86444) to which users can send outbound tweets via SMS, Orange customers can now also send camphone pics as MMS. They appear on Snapshot, a new photo displaying site, though the permalink URL is tweeted back through Twitter (examples). This is just like the main Twitter photo sites Twitpic and Yfrog – it’s a great idea and a logical value-add area for a carrier to get in to, now that Twitter is gaining mainstream popularity. Biz dev director Kevin Thau’s announcement and release.
— Tweets on TV (France etc): Not just mobile – Orange (via Guardian.co.uk) also says: “In countries where we have TV services we plan to enrich shows by allowing people to tweet while they watch their favourite programmes.” Orange TV is very popular in France as part of Orange’s three-screen (TV, web, mobile) strategy; its Livebox STB will let viewers tweet each other and will integrate tweets in to shows, the report says.
Orange is also adding Twitter to its Social Life mobile aggregator app alongside Facebook, MySpace and Bebo.
Orange may be nearly four years late rolling out Orange TV in the UK, but it’s extremely popular in France, which has the world’s highest IPTV take-up, and has even launched in Jordan, Poland and Spain. It first announced the British launch in June 2006, then promised it would launch in 2007.
Last year, Orange told us it would launch in 2008, after a 300-customer trial in Leeds, but UK CEO Tom Alexander finally canned the idea in November 2008, admitting it