Free Xbox 360 With Purchase Of A Nokia Lumia 800 At Orange

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We’ve all seen some pretty impressive giveaways connected with smartphones before. More than a few out there are available at no cost once you sign up for a contract. But the folks at Orange are planning to sweeten the pot significantly by offering up a free Xbox 360 when you sign up for a handset upgrade to the Nokia Lumia 800.

Right now, there are three vendors who’ll be picking up the Nokia Lumia 800: Vodafone, 3 UK, and of course, Orange. 3 UK is going right for the throat immediately, offering up preorders on the phone whose launch date is as yet unclear. But while Vodafone and Orange are only offering availability updates via email and the like, Orange is planning to take it even farther still by offering up the video game system to upgrading users.

What’s interesting about this is that it seems so far like Orange is the only one offering the upgrade special, meaning that, despite the fact that these are Windows Phones going up on the block, Microsoft doesn’t seem as yet involved in the promotion. That’s not to say that Orange may not be getting a deal from Microsoft on these, especially if they’re buying heavily in bulk to satisfy expected demand, but it’s not a promotion that Microsoft is backing with anyone else, at least at this stage of the game.

It seems a bit like overkill, in all honesty, for Orange to be putting up an entire game system worth around $200 (assuming its the four gig variety, prices of course vary) in exchange for a handset upgrade, but from what I’ve been able to tell so far the UK mobile market is hotly competitive, and given that we’re dealing with kind of an underdog here (let’s face it, when people think “smartphone maker”, Nokia probably doesn’t jump to the top of the list until somewhere after Apple) it may make sense to put out a hefty inducement.

But what do you guys think here? Is Orange going farther than necessary to win support for the Nokia Lumia 800? Or is this a strictly necessary action in the face of overwhelming competition? Either way, we want to know what you think, so head on down to the comments section and fill us in!