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Orange to take SPV smartphone to the US? How?

The Orange SPV smartphone was designed jointly by Microsoft and by HTC; and Orange has a one-year exclusive on the design. But Orange says it isn't launching in the States. So how come a virtual clone of the SPV has been found on the FCC's Web site, awaiting approval?

Orange is pretty open about the fact that it has no plans to launch the SPV in America. It doesn't often greet questions about its future plans with a definite "No!" but it does when you ask it that question. It has no American network, and while it has a Boston office, that's just the office left over from its takeover of WildFire (voice-activated phone robot).

Nonetheless, the phone has turned up as "up for approval" by the Federal Communications Commission, according to one report which even managed to get an illustration of the American SPV.

The two aren't identical, as an Orange exec quickly pointed out - the American "Tanager" design has coloured bars down the side, and a subtly different keyboard layout. But the creator is High Tech Computers, and it's clearly a Smartphone, by Microsoft.

A clearly embarrassed Orange spokesman promised to let us know the company's official response. But he's going to look even more embarrassed if it turns out Orange has done a deal with a US carrier to allow roaming with SPV to North America.

Such a move isn't unthinkable. Indeed, if Orange SPV customers are to be allowed to take advantage of its unique properties - such as the ability to synchronise your phone with Outlook "over the air" and the ability to back up your SIM card contents over the air too, then a carrier has to be found who will make this possible.

Microsoft, of course, desperately wants the Smartphone to launch in the US; and right now, with the collapse of its deal with Sendo, it has some negotiating to do. It gave Orange the SPV; it was expecting T-Mobile to launch the Sendo Z-100 in both Europe and America early 2003 - and Sprint was also going to carry the Sendo Smartphone.

That launch will now take some time, and if/when it happens, the Sendo phone will have the rival Symbian software inside. So Microsoft will, if it is being prudent, rush ahead to get FCC approval not just for the Compal and Samsung Smartphones, but also for the HTC "Canary" design which was the reference platform.

Whether it actually told Orange that it was doing this, remains to be seen, of course.

We're expecting Orange to come back and explain that, naturally, it can't comment on future product marketing plans, but that, equally naturally, it knew all about the Tanager all along.