What's Welsh for Orange?
Welsh first for Samsung phone
Half a million or so Welsh speakers will get the first mobile phone designed with them in mind.
Samsung's S5600: soon available with a Welsh dictionary
Orange has won an exclusive to sell the Welsh language version of the Samsung S5600. It goes on sale on September 1 and is available on 24-month contract at £19.57 per month or at £14.98 per month (with a £9.50 upfront fee). The pre-pay version retails at £129.00. They come in black, pink and white.
We are fairly sure that predictive texting has been available in Welsh for many years. But Samsung says it has gone further, with a dictionary of 44,000 Welsh words and Welsh menus. And predictive texting in North Wales and South Wales dialects.
Appropriately enough, Orange debuted the phone yesterday at the National Eisteddfod of Wales. It has an early convert in Alex Jones, a presenter on the Welsh language S4C TV channel, who helped launch the phone.
“It’s an amazing idea and perfect for people like me who do a lot of our conversing in Welsh. Things like typing and sending text messages are so much easier on this phone as opposed to the issues we all face on English-only phones. I know all my friends will want to get hold of one as soon as they are in the shops.”
Or, as she says, in the Gymraeg version:
“Mae hwn yn syniad anhygoel gan Orange a Samsung, mae'n berffaith i rywun fel fi sy'n cyfathrebu llawer yn Gymraeg. Mae pethau fel teipio ac anfon negeseuon testun yn llawer haws ar y ffôn hwn o gymharu â'r problemau sy'n wynebu pob un ohonom gyda ffonau uniaith Saesneg. Rwy'n gwybod y bydd pob un o'm ffrindiau am gael gafael ar un o'r ffonau hyn cyn gynted ag y byddant ar gael yn y siopau.”
Does this woman want an endorsement deal, or what...
Press releases below. We couldn't find the Welsh language versions online, so you will have to make do with English.
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COMMENTS
Re: Atal
In reply to Anonymous Coward's 'Atal' post, there is a Welsh Language act which gives us Welsh the right to communicate in our native tongue. Your view is very narrow minded and next i suppose you'll be saying you want the rest of the world to make English the standard language for everything everywhere. Our language is a sign of our heritage and it is a part of who we are. We have had to put up with this discrimination for centuries!
I think this phone is a brilliant step forward and i believe this will pave the way for many more manufacturers following the path and adding the language onto their mobiles. Even MS decided to make Welsh an option for XP and Vista, and we can even have Facebook, Firefox, Linux all in Welsh. This could help push the welsh language forward again.
I noticed the reg had amended it's description of Alex Jones as a man!
I wonder if Dafydd Iwan has had talks about re recording "Yma o Hyd" as the default ringtone.....
Tech Support
Of course Orange still won't be able to provide tech support for the phone in Cymraeg since that's based in Bristol and full of Welsh-hating tractor drivers.
Funny how T-mobile which is based in Merthyr Tydfil doesn't provide this (that said I doubt many people actually speak welsh there)? Maybe if the Welsh Assembly (after the Head Master has finished with them) might want to insist that any Telecom company based in Wales provides welsh language service?
Just another example of a pathetic desperate marketing department trying to get attention because they can't get the basic marketing strategy right (hence Orange's slump in sales over the last 5 years - crap marketing). Never a leader always a follower. After all Orange is the waiting light rather than Go (or even the bold Stop!).
@Peter Bond
"And the best thing about being Welsh? Your not English!"
Evidently.
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