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European cellcos are stepping up the effort to define their customers' mobile web experience, keeping their brands at the forefront of consumers' minds. They are starting to make aggressive use of widgets, which allow simple homescreen access to key services, and allow subscribers to personalize their user interface. This technique was initially seen mainly in vendor-driven platforms like Nokia Series 60, but now the operators are pushing themselves forward, with Vodafone and Orange both announcing new moves.

Vodafone's Widget Manager is now available in a beta version in many of its territories, with the software downloadable for free from the operator's Live! portal. Availability is limited so far - it only works with the Opera browser on Nokia Series 60 smartphones, with the first models being the N96, N95 8Gb, N78 and 6210. However, full release will follow soon in 2009, plus extension to other browsers and operating systems, as Vodafone tries to loosen the tight coupling between its high end mobile web platform and Nokia.

Among the Vodafone widgets so far are Live Scores, Fresh Games, RSS Reader, Weatherbug, Egg Timer, Train Times, Lottery, Currency Converter and FHM Hot Babes, and BBC News and Sport should be added before Christmas.

Orange has added a fourth platform to its series of widget-based families, each geared to a different popular mobile web activity. The new one, Djinngo, is focused on live radio and news/information update services, and it joins SoundTribes for the promotion of unsigned music, WhoseGaming for mobile games, and Pikeo, a photo sharing service.

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