diff --git a/plotly/graph_objs/graph_objs_tools.py b/plotly/graph_objs/graph_objs_tools.py
index 812b29e4764..a40e774866d 100644
--- a/plotly/graph_objs/graph_objs_tools.py
+++ b/plotly/graph_objs/graph_objs_tools.py
@@ -4,8 +4,16 @@
 import os
 import sys
 if sys.version[:3] == '2.6':
-    from ordereddict import OrderedDict
-    import simplejson as json
+    try:
+        from ordereddict import OrderedDict
+        import simplejson as json
+    except ImportError:
+        raise ImportError(
+            "Looks like you're running Python 2.6. Plotly expects newer "
+            "standard library versions of ordereddict and json. You can "
+            "simply upgrade with these 'extras' with the following terminal "
+            "command:\npip install 'plotly[PY2.6]'"
+        )
 else:
     from collections import OrderedDict
     import json
diff --git a/plotly/version.py b/plotly/version.py
index 4c2dc20a737..970bb6f45e7 100644
--- a/plotly/version.py
+++ b/plotly/version.py
@@ -1 +1 @@
-__version__ = '1.6.9'
+__version__ = '1.6.10'
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 4c9f4f884e3..f812d65be9d 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -41,9 +41,6 @@ def readme():
                 'plotly/matplotlylib/mplexporter',
                 'plotly/matplotlylib/mplexporter/renderers'],
       package_data={'plotly': ['graph_reference/*.json', 'widgets/*.js']},
-      install_requires=['requests',
-                        'six',
-                        'pytz',
-                        'ordereddict',
-                        'simplejson'],
+      install_requires=['requests', 'six', 'pytz'],
+      extras_require={"PY2.6": ['simplejson', 'ordereddict']},
       zip_safe=False)