Orange Telecom offers a collaborative environment

A few weeks ago I spent some time in NYC: it was Internet Week and there was a lot of networking to do in the city. While there, I took the opportunity to visit the Orange developer centre (yes, thats how they spell center) downtown. I’ve been planning to hit it up for a while, but the 7 day advance booking requirement made it hard. Finally everything aligned and I spent a few hours there testing video playback on several mobile phones.

Orange Telecom is a huge cell phone and internet service provider in Europe. They’ve set up Orange development centers in several big cities around the world. One feature of these centers is a mobile testing station that allows developers and usability experts to test their software on a myriad of hand held devices. Since we offer mobile video support, I became interested in checking out the Orange partner program. After a straightforward and quick application process, we were accepted and booked time at the dev center in NYC.

I found the collection of mobile devices to be extensive: it includes at least 12 phones that are sold in the UK, France, Germany, and other countries (including Nokia, LG, Samsung, Sony Ericson, and other brands). Absent from their stores of gadgets were Apple mobile products.

One downside is that they do not like the developers to upgrade the phones’ operating systems (unless its a pushed upgrade from Orange). This allows them to have the phones in the state they were originally sold. Other than that it is a very useful facility and worth checking out if you are interested in cross-mobile-platform development/testing.