Based in Oxfordshire Comment manages and supplies handsets to high street and non-traditional retailers around the UK such as Amazon Comet WH Smith Woolworths Littlewoods Shop Direct and Sainsburys.
But Comment managing director Michael Richardson dismissed the idea that it is a traditional distributor.
We only buy stock to order and we try to encourage direct supply from the manufacturer to our customer where appropriate he said. That tends to be at odds with the traditional distribution model.
He added: In an ideal world the customer would simply receive their phone direct from the factory cutting out all the middlemen.
The companys unaudited financial results for 2006 show a turnover of £27.4 million with pre-tax profit of £600000.

The opening was attended by Telfords mayor as well as Mainline Digital Communications managing director Andrew Boden. Geko has enjoyed a successful relationship with the Orange distributor.
The Orange-accredited business mobile specialist has expanded to employ 80 people since its formation in 2001 by local businessman and now managing director Dave Carter. There are also plans afoot to recruit up to 50 more staff this year and a further 10 at its Birmingham site.
Our move to Telford has already afforded us enhanced productivity and greater recruitment opportunities he said.
We are now in a position to welcome more staff to the team.

Brooks was formally product manager at BenQ-Siemens. His responsibilities at Unique include network approval processes for vendor placement and Tesco Mobile products
He will also be working on projects such as Uniques exclusivity deal with German VoIP-to-mobile convergence supplier IPdrums IP Voicelink product.
Brooks said: It is great to be staying in the mobile space and Unique Distribution gives me the an excellent opportunity to expand my experience and knowledge and to see a different side of the industry. If nothing else it is a great chance to play with more than one manufacturers products.
IPdrum is a palm-sized box that connects to a PC via a USB link. It contains a standard mobile SIM card while allows it to open a direct link between a mobile handset and a computer.
Users are not restricted to any particular model of phone or any extra hardware or software they just need an IPdrum box and an extra SIM card and mobile subscription.
Brooks said: The IPdrum solution connects Skype to any mobile phone allowing users true mobility as well as low cost or free international mobile calls.
Brooks claimed that using a second SIM card meant that the offering truly brings VOIP to any mobile anywhere.
Unlike all other mobile VOIP solutions the Voicelink does not rely on Wi-Fi special handsets 3G or any other limitations he added.

All dealer service calls will now be fielded by 3s call centres in Maidenhead and Mumbai.
At a meeting last week 3 said there would be 120 redundancies but staff numbers in Glasgow would remain at around 375.
The staff cuts come after it made 130 roles redundant from its Maidenhead headquarters before Christmas.
3 said the move is for customer service reasons. But staff outside its city-centre offices in St Vincent Street said it was just to save cash and outsource work.
We are focused on providing the best service we can for the complexity and range of issues we need to cover for customers said a 3 spokesman. We will do all we can to support these people in seeking new roles within 3 and outside the business.
3s Glasgow call centre has been open since 2003.

O2 is to fork out GBP 10.5 million in staff bonuses after stores hit growth targets three months ahead of schedule.

O2 signed up one million customers in 2006 taking its subscriber base to over 17 million. Staff hit the targets by October.

O2 will be pay a GBP 1000 cash bonus to full-time O2 employees and GBP 500 for part-time employees. It set up the scheme – called Thanks a Million – last year to incentivise staff to hit the million mark.

O2 UK CEO Matthew Key said: We are delighted to have smashed our targets for growth and we continue to go from strength to strength. This is the result of great effort and dedication from every single person who works for O2. Our people are at the heart of our enterprise and true customer loyalty can only be achieved by an engaged and motivated workforce putting our customers needs first.

The programme was created to rally everyone to deliver a complete O2 experience for customers that is consistently better than the rest and to reward our staff for reaching it. Weve hit our target of a million net customers three months ahead of schedule. I am delighted to announce the GBP 1000 cash bonus today and I believe its vital that everyone at O2 continues to share and benefit from the growing success of our business.

The company plans to repeat the Thanks A Million programme in 2007 – this time based on customer satisfaction ratings rather than new connections. The GBP 1000 bonus will stand.

The 20:20 Mobile Group has renamed its Global Fulfilment Services international distribution arm as 20:20 Fulfilment as part of its wider branding initiative.
Global Fulfilment Services exports handsets to more than 60 countries. It has agreements with manufacturers in 14 countries and claims a customer base of more than 800 network operators service providers and retailers.
But 20:20 denied claims by some industry sources last week that it had shut down Global Fulfilment Services for good.
A spokesperson said there had not been massive redundancies as rumoured and that the restructuring of 20:20 under new owner Doughty Hanson was ongoing.
It has not been closed. It has simply been renamed 20:20 Fulfilment as part of the groups branding initiative. It is and will continue to be a profitable business said the spokesperson.
There is still speculation about the arms future however. Sources close to 20:20 reckoned staff numbers at Global Fulfilment Services have dropped from 30 people to three since 2005 when the division was doing around £300 million sales. Now however it is said to be down to £100 million.
One senior distribution source said: Sales on the international side have dropped. It only has three staff left. The rest have been sacked for poor performance or else they just havent been replaced. There is a feeling that the company has had to pull its horns in because it has been waiting many months for millions of pounds of VAT refunds.
Earlier this month 20:20 Mobile appointed former-Dell Computer executive Peter Hubbard as its new managing director.
Hubbard spent 11 years at Dell running various sales and marketing functions across the business. He replaces Rod Millar who left in November
20:20 Mobile Group CEO Mark Ryan said: Peter brings with him a wealth of experience of working for the worlds largest computer supplier. He has considerable experience of delivering results within a constantly changing market.
Hubbard added: 20:20 Logistics is a great business that operates in a dynamic market. Im looking forward to the challenge of taking the business forward.

Huntingdon-based Cybit provides tracking solutions to over 1000 organisations mainly for commercial vehicle management.
O2 is supplying machine-to-machine (M2M) SIM cards which fit in a vehicles black box so customers can track and manage their fleet from the office.
O2 general manager of business sales Ben Dowd said: O2 was the first mobile network in the UK to have a dedicated M2M team. Around 80 per cent of our M2M partners are exclusive demonstrating their confidence in our ability to deliver.

Oxby will leave at the end of March. Penberthy-Smith will take up his role of marketing director then. Oxby is expected to move to the private equity sector specialising in telecoms media and technology.
3UK CEO Bob Fuller said: Graeme has been instrumental in establishing a new brand in a competitive market. He has been a great colleague and we wish him all the best in future.
Penberthy-Smith joined 3 in October 2006 as director of customer marketing. As marketing director he will report to deputy CEO Kevin Russell and will be responsible for products customer propositions channel and base marketing as well as 3s flat rate mobile broadband proposition the X -Series.
Penberthy-Smith said: 3 is the challenger in the market. I look forward to building its 3G position by offering compelling customer propositions that are easy to understand.

Prior to joining 3 Penberthy-Smith was at Vodafone where he held a number of roles including Head of Global Voice Propositions for Vodafone Group and Director of Consumer Marketing for Vodafone UK.
3UK CEO Bob Fuller said John brings over 17 years of marketing experience of which seven have been spent in mobile. 3 is a young brand and were clearly differentiated from our competitors in the market and I believe John will continue to build on what weve achieved over the last four years.

O2 launched two clubs for business connectors last week to help it crack the burgeoning UK data market which it claims will be worth £1 billion by 2009.
O2 has invited 15 large B2B resellers and service providers including Affiniti Alternative Networks Azzurri Handheld PCs and Timico to join its Data Centre of Excellence for which it has partnered with Nokia and BlackBerry maker Research in Motion. The basic threshold for entry is 400 data connections a quarter and an average revenue per user (ARPU) of at least £44 a month.
Battersea-based service provider Alternative Networks and Affiniti part of Kingston Communications are the first businesses to qualify. O2 expects five more to join this year and others to step up to the mark in due course.
O2 general manager of business sales Ben Dowd said: The 15 companies that we brought together for the launch are the ones best equipped to get there quickly. These guys are the best in the industry at selling mobile data solutions. They have the reach and depth and expertise in certain areas that we dont necessarily have. Its an exclusive club but we want it to grow.

Relationship
Its 15 channel partners all of which have a direct relationship with O2 also have to appoint two internal pre-sales data specialists sales consultants trained and tested in data solutions by O2 itself who can assess customers needs prior to the sales pitch. They are also required to set up an in-house after-sales service team made up of two data care specialists.
Performance will be rated according to customer satisfaction scores and verbatim customer comments. Membership of the club will be withdrawn if channel partners fail any of the criteria warned Dowd.
Youve got to have the resources in place and youve got to be able to deliver a great customer experience and you have to do that consistently said Dowd. If you dont you get taken off the programme.
As with O2s Advance dealer and distributor schemes data club partners will receive extra marketing support on lead generation promotional activities and incentives as well as help with recruitment and access to kit. Data club dealers will be able to access and share information via an Internet portal. They will also be accredited and awarded a plaque and quality stamp to certify them as preferred data resellers.
O2 follows its Data Centre of Excellence with the launch of an exclusive machine-to-machine (M2M) centre of excellence to channel partners on Wednesday (January 31). M2M deals with technology that reports information remotely to other machines without human intervention such as vehicle tracking.
O2 has identified seven M2M specialists including Azzurri Cybit and Trafficmaster to enter the club but has so far admitted none. Similarly M2M club benefits include a guaranteed marketing fund technical and sales training and support with recruitment.
The two new data clubs M2M connections are classified as data are intended to put O2 on the front foot in the industrys big growth sector. Armed with analysis by Gartner O2 predicts that the data market will be worth £1 billion within two years.
Market penetration is around 15 per cent as it stands. That figure will jump to 70 per cent by 2009 driven primarily by the proliferation of email solutions. O2 wants its connection rate to outpace the industry growth.
We want to overachieve. We want to take more than our number one share said Dowd.
As it stands Vodafone is number one in the corporate sector where most data connections will go. It puts its share of the market at 55 per cent.
According to Dowd however Vodafone actually accounts for closer to 45 per cent of handsets in the corporate market and leads only because of some large contracts within the government sector. O2 which takes around 30 per cent of the corporate market won a large Treasury contract from Vodafone last year and is looking to encroach further on Vodafones public sector monopoly.

Neck and neck
Up until now O2 and Vodafone have been neck and neck in the SME sector ahead of Orange in third place and far beyond T-Mobile with a single digit share in fourth. But O2 with around 30 per cent has just sneaked ahead of Vodafone for handset numbers according to Dowd and is in pole position on all fronts in terms of data connections.
In terms of handset numbers we believe were number one in SME and number two in corporate behind Vodafone. The difference is the government sector and we have that in our sights. If youre looking at data we believe were number one for data said Dowd.
Essex and Hertfordshire police signed a five-year contract for around 4000 handsets with O2 just before Christmas. It is the largest police deal O2 has done and gives bobbies on the beat access to national police register information. O2 now has 21 out of the UKs 43 police constabularies on its books.
Other recent big corporate contract wins include flower wholesaler Flamingo Holdings signed by Maidenhead B2B dealer Handheld PCs and Portsmouth Water signed by Newport Pagnell B2B dealership Interchange.
Dowd expects longer-term contracts typically of two years but also running to three and sometimes five to become the norm. Business customers are now integrating mobile and data solutions into their IT budgets and do not want the hassle of thrashing out new contract terms every 12 months.

Opportunity
O2s strategy hinges on the same basic principle as Vodafones: that the channel is of little use in terms of consumer connections but is still good for snaring SOHO and SME customers.
Quality resellers can reach the parts of the lucrative B2B market that lumbering networks cannot. But O2 does not subscribe to the view as Vodafone does that the larger corporate sector is out of bounds to independent dealers.
The biggest opportunity for these guys is around the SME level said Dowd. Thats around the 500 employee mark. But some of these players have cut through to the corporate sector too.
Nor does O2 plan to ape Vodafone and buy up large B2B resellers and service providers operating at the corporate end of the market claimed Dowd. Its data clubs alongside its Advance schemes for dealers and distributors supply it with good enough access to the key growth sectors.
When you look at the size of the data market we dont need to go buying companies to achieve our objectives he said. A lot of these companies are entrepreneurial and its not a road well go down.
O2s strategy for data sales is to dangle a carrot in the form of entry to its club in front of the dealers nose. The channel has to raise its game to continue to work with O2 but convergence has changed the rules and everyone has to adapt.
When we create these clubs of advance partners and data specialists its meant to be exclusive and its meant to be aspirational because we all have to step up to the mark said Dowd.
Its not just the networks and the dealer channel business customers have to step up to the mark too. They have to get to grips with mobile data so they can achieve a competitive edge over their rivals because these services deliver more productivity.

Why data is crucial to ARPU
The increased importance of the data market is a result of declining voice revenues for the networks.
The immediate growth area for data is email as solutions from RIM Microsoft and Nokia proliferate among business customers. As form factors for data devices shrink more consumers are using them as combined devices as the popularity of BlackBerrys Pearl handset proves. And so networks only need to subsidise a single device for both voice and data.
Gartner bases its prediction that the data market will spiral to a £1 billion industry in two years on the arrival of more desktop applications on mobile phones. Converged devices also offer better combined voice and data revenue than the sum of the revenues from two distinct devices according to O2 general manager of business sales Ben Dowd.
When customers get an email on a converged device they are far more likely to respond either by making a call or emailing back he said. Additional ARPU is created by combining data and voice.
The right mobile data solutions can improve productivity and provide a competitive edge to users.
We need to move the discussion away from price to productivity said Dowd. The benefits that data brings go beyond how much money you can save on your mobile bill. If you start to make sales teams or engineers more productive you actually give time back to the business. Thats where we all need to move.

In the UK it was the best-selling manufacturer for 17 out of 18 weeks leading up to Christmas according to retail data from research company GfK. It only lost the top spot during the week before Christmas when Motorola pipped it after slashing prices heavily on its pre-pay range but regained it the following week.
Sony Ericsson attributed its success to its K800/K790 Cyber-shot phone and Walkman range and to the fact that it maintained retail prices in the face of high consumer demand.
Its global Q4 volume and sales growth topped 60 per cent compared with the end of 2005. Its volume for 2006 increased to 74.8 million units of which 26 million shipped in Q4.
Sales jumped to 10.9 billion (£7.2 billion) for the year of which 3782 million registered during the three months to December 31.
Income before taxes for the quarter was 502 million a year-on-year increase of 144 per cent. Net income for the quarter was 447 million.
In total Sony Ericsson shipped 60 million music-enabled phones including 17 million Walkman handsets across all its markets during 2006.
Sony Ericsson president Miles Flint said: We finished a strong year with record volumes sales and net income due to the soaring popularity of our imaging and music phones. Earlier investments in R&D and marketing have enabled us to expand the portfolio and strengthen the brand to increase consumer and operator appeal.
Our target is to become one of the top three players in the industry and the momentum we established in 2006 makes this an achievable ambition.
Sony Ericsson claimed it had grown its global market share by two per cent during Q4 giving it a current global market share of nine per cent.