There's been a lot of talk of mobile phone consumers appearing reluctant to embrace additional features and services such as music downloads, games and Web browsing, but UK provider Orange may well have come up with a solution.

Trials are underway that will initially allow 800,000 of Orange's 15.6 million user-base to download music tracks across four genres (Urban, Pop, Rock and Dance) for free, or at least a heavily discounted rate. The trial will last three months and is made possible by the use of ad-supported content, specifically allowing advertisers to place prominent banners on-screen during the purchase process.

A number of advertisers, including Paramount Pictures and Ford, have already been signed up and, if successful, the scheme could hit the mainstream market and spread to other areas such as games, applications and Web browsing.

We love the idea, and believe it to be the best strategy yet for encouraging users to make better user of these sorts of features on their mobiles. More on the results and likelihood of us all being able to have our cake and eat it as and when they appear.

Tags: music download mobile phone web browser orange business and economy mobile telecommunications android