In a major editorial, Rafe looks at Orange services on the Nokia 6680 and argues that operator offerings are an important part of the smartphone package.
Operators adding to Symbian OS becoming more important
Nice article. However, as with many things, Nokia are tagging onto an idea that Sendo had quite a while ago. The X was one of the first to feature an operator specific theme, together with operator specific panes in the Now screen. On the flipside though, people quite often want a "plain" phone so that they can customise it themselves - i.e. no operator boot up screens (I remember O2 Active being a royal pain on the 3230). I suppose it's just a matter of personal taste.
I think its worthwhile realising that most people wont realise they haven't got a plain phone. It tend to be the sort of people that read this site that want to get rid of customisations. It would be interesting to survey Orange 6680 owners and see who liked the Orange Home screen.
Most of the "Orange 6680" owners I know hate the Orange home screen, mainly because (unlike Now! on Sendo handsets) it is impossible to customise. And of course, on the 6680, unlike on the SPV C500, it can't be turned off.
One thing - why were you using an O2 (Ireland) SIM card in the phone?
I wasn't - I just happened to be in Ireland when I took that particular screenshot.