Here’s a good indication why. I’ve just got confirmation through about their new range of laptops.

Yes, every UK operator is jumping on the we-do-laptops-too bandwaggon and Orange are one of those lagging behind. They’ve finally vomitted out a range — good news. I have the details. I was just hunting for some pictures.

I hit the orange.co.uk site … and…

Can you see any laptops for sale?

Can you see any pictures of phones, for that matter?

This is the *frontpage* of Orange.co.uk.

Surely they’d have at least ONE picture of a Nokia or something? To draw you in, get you to click?

Let’s assume, for a moment, I’m on the hunt for one of these new laptops I’ve heard about.

Where do I click?

On the left, I’ve got the little menu:

No mention of laptops.

Ok, so let’s scan right…

No mention of laptops again.

Ok. Now it’s time for pot luck.

I’ll..er…

I’ll just click, shall I?

Let’s go for ‘pay monthly’.

I actually second guessed myself. I actually thought, ‘shit maybe the laptops don’t come out today’ and I went back to look at the press release text:

Orange today launches its new mobile broadband and laptop offer targeted specifically at the business market. Small and medium business customers can now sign up to a new Orange Business Everywhere mobile broadband package and come away with a laptop as well.

Ok.

No mention of laptops. Let’s look down the expanded shop menu:

Nope.

Maybe I should click in the ‘business shop’?

Oooh!

Oh look!

Result!

Now we’re talking.

I clicked on that banner.

Woosh.

Here we go:

No prices.

No indications.

Nothing to draw the eye to purchase yet.

Except the OUT OF STOCK label at the bottom is rather off-putting.

Ah dear.

Since the Orange website does such a shit job of it, I’ll post the details from the release shortly.

And if you want the direct link to look at the laptop page, it’s here.

I thought I would investigate the service, as a keen web-builder myself; I’m always intrigued to see what there is to offer, and today I have been pleasantly surprised.

In all it took me no more than forty-five minutes to come up with a basic four page website, with a couple of images, and a some text here and there. I was even able to include a PayPal donate button the bottom of my Home page.

The website itself was published in little less than five minutes and registration was simple and easy. The best bit of course, is not only the fact it’s free, but seeing the end result.

Don’t expect anything magical, you are only offered a choice from a set number of templates, but that doesn’t stop your site looking rather cool. You can upload images, and even create online Galleries with your own photos. I even uploaded a picture I’ve taken on my own digital camera (which was somewhere in the region of 4MB), and Ubik automatically resized, and compressed it, so that it was suitable for mobile browsing.

The online site creator is simple to use, and comes with a variety of features for you to include. Paypal buttons, search bars, images, text, and menus.

Obviously, the sub-domain, isn’t the best in the world, but if you’re just starting out, or looking for inspiration with what to do for your own mobile site, I think this is perfect.

I’m also pretty sure if you put more time into building the site, and played around with the features more, you could probably get something a lot better looking than my forty-five minute creation.

Check out more pictures of my site “here” or point your mobile towards http://thesamantha.ubik.net