I have a new phone arriving tomorrow - not a review phone (you can read about some of the precious things I've been playing with in Business Sense next Thursday) but one tied to my contract. I've gone for a Sony Ericsson K750i, all very exciting no doubt.
A colleague, meanwhile, was complaining that he can't actually get the phone he wants because he has a business account. The answer, in true David Walliams fashion, was always 'computer says no...'
I asked Orange about this last week, and although they're a little embarrassed about their inflexibility on business v. consumer phones, they explained the rationale. Business customers, you see, have certain agreements in place - like the one that says if your handset goes wrong you can have another in, oh, 24 hours. This isn't going to be possible with every phone, they explained.
And it's true. One of the alternatives I was looking at when choosing my upgrade was the W800i - the Walkman phone (as you might guess, I've never registered as a business customer). They had a supply issue, though, and wouldn't be able to deliver for 4-6 weeks.
You can imagine the furore if that had been a business account holder with a stolen phone demanding a contractually-promised replacement. So although Orange at least wants to do something about the limiting situation in which businesses find themselves, it's fair to speculate that the company won't be making absolutely everything available to everyone just immediately. They need to honour their service level promises and frankly, that comes first.
