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This week has been an interesting one. It seems that technology such as Apples Iphone is becoming multi denominational with Orange Users today gaining access on their network and Vodafone in the near future.

Personally as a bit of a pay as you go phones junkie – I do realise that generally the best deals to have are through contracts, as they allow for greater allowances in terms of data and other useful things like always having minutes at your diposal – Why is it that whenever you have a top-up phone you always seem to run out of credit at the very worse times?

Some furor is being kicked up online in regards to Orange’s slightly amazing sound ‘Unlimited Data’ Package which infact turns out to be only 750MB a month – which for a savvy phone user is pretty small. Basically a these types of phones are simply 3g devices running of Mobile Broadband networks.

Even the humble Mobile Broadband dongle seems to be being pushed out of the way despite how tariffs for Mobile Broadband being at there best ever. In October the almost Original coiner of the smart phone – 3 won an Award for its Tariffs.

Last night, 3 triumphed in the category of Best Mobile Broadband Package at the Mobile Choice Consumer Awards 2009. In 2008, Mobile Broadband from 3 took home Tariff Deal of the Year.

3 beat off competition from Vodafone, The Link, O2 and T-Mobile as the ultimate netbook and data package.

The judge’s comments: “The standard aspect of 3′s great value Mobile Broadband deal is not so much the excellent Samsung N130 Netbook with its 10-inch LCD screen and Intel Atom CPU, but the amount of free data available every month. A mighty 15GB makes this tariff a market leader, reflecting the requirements of real life like those data-sapping media transfers. Featuring an additional 100 free texts per month, this two year deal from 3 costs just £25 per month, and makes 3 the clear winner if Best Mobile Broadband package.”

Marc Allera Sales & Marketing Director at 3 said: “We are delighted to be recognised as winners for our Mobile Broadband year on year and to be able to offer our customers deals that are great value for money. We are very proud of our Mobile Broadband offering and to win at the Mobile Choice Consumer Awards, yet again, validates our position as market leader.”

The INQ1, voted the GSMA’s ‘Best Mobile Handset or Device’ in February this year, also took home Best Handset for Social Networking. INQ fought off stiff competition from the HTC Hero, Nokia N97, LG GW520 and BlackBerry Curve. Source

I really hoped that customer’s will not be fooled by Orange’s advertising tricks and that perhaps other Network providers will realise that to actually win in this game you must have the best deal.

With news being reported this week that Orange has secured a deal with Apple to sell the IPhone and being an Orange Customer presently came a thought to my slightly dead brain… ‘Could there actually be an app which I would use, and could save me money?’ So today I decided to go on a browsing journey to find something which would truly be fun to use and save me money.

It actually wasn’t too hard to find.

Pizza Hut Iphone App

And here it is the Pizza Hut Iphone App which enables users to select,customise, and order their Pizza whilst subtracting 20% of the bill! Oh, the savings! Use of the Application is described by Main Street as…

The Pizza Hut application uses advanced interactive pizza building technology to help customers visualize their orders. They can scroll through various offerings like pasta, wings and pizza and manipulate the images of the food to their liking. Prefer some extra hot sauce on your wings? Just tap that option and give your iPhone a shake. Those wings will start dancing around and begin to get saucier. Want a bigger or smaller pizza pie? Just pinch or stretch the dough on the screen to toggle between small, medium or large sizes.

Because of its free nature and the huge publicity it had in the US it saw a massive boom in downloads and with no other product of a similar nature or calibre its easy to see why so many people have decided to switch and save over to Apple products, unfortunately as I found this morning on a friends IPhone, that this app is not availiable in the UK – the best app we could find was a Pizza Hut Finder which kinda sucks in comparison.

A financial contract is all well and good when the financial climate is good. Small businesses during a recession are less likely to sign/agree long term/large contracts and for good reason. We all know how annoying it is when you sign a deal with say, a Mobile Phone or Mobile Broadband provider and a hugely better deal comes around a lot quicker than you ever thought it would. Dare I say it, if I wasn’t on an Orange Mobile Phone contract, I would almost certainly have gone for the iPhone pre 3g! But then of course, I would have been disappointed at the arrival of the 3g iphone which seems to be tonnes better.

Iphone 3G - Do I need one?

The way forward is to have the ability to ‘chop and change’, using a pay as you go system. Take for example Car Rental or Van Hire, an industry which seems to being effected by car hire shortages. Of course the BBC is talking specifically about foreign holiday based car hire brokers, but overall the shortage is seemingly crippling the industry.

Do the working’s of an industry need to change as soon as possible to allow for small companies who need the use of rental vehicles at a reasonable price to rent at a competitive rate for day to day tasks, in a pay as you go fashion, rather then having the crippling long term financial commitments a contract brings?

Tailor-made packages need to be thought through, with emphasis on being client specific and client friendly. Could this be free delivery of vehicles within a 10-20 mile radius, or huge discounts for advance payments on pre-pay vehicles? Flexibility is the key to any business needs and perhaps there should be an overall re-think in the rental vehicles market…? Thus, saving money and ensuring business work together to get through uncertain economic climates.