My wife may be in the market for a new smartphone. She's a pediatric resident at a hospital in Central New Jersey where she uses:

• a late-model TDMA Nokia mobile phone,
• a Research in Motion 950 wireless handheld, and
• a Palm V Handheld.

She runs an application called ePocrates on her Palm V. It provides her with many reference tools that are quite valuable in her job, including descriptions of drugs and diseases.

I told the story in this detail so that you would see how much someone like her would benefit from the integration of a device like the PalmOne Treo 600. Getting a Treo 600 would allow her to go from three separate handheld devices to one, and would also allow her to get rid of one of her two wireless bills.

Because I am a satisfied customer of T-Mobile USA, I would like to get off of her current carrier, AT&T Wireless and over to mine-- if only to take advantage of free mobile-to-mobile calling that is generally available.

The problem is that T-Mobile makes it difficult to buy the Treo 600 for use on their network. You can buy a Treo 600 from Amazon.com for use on Cingular, AT&T Wireless, and Sprint PCS. If you go to the palmOne Treo Store, it appears that you can buy Treo 600 for Verizon Wireless, AT&T Wireless, and Sprint PCS, although Cingular is also readily available. When you search for a handheld on the T-Mobile consumer website, you see Blackberries, the T-Mobile Sidekick, and a Pocket PC phone, but don't see the Treo 600.

I finally figured out where you can go on-line to purchase a Treo 600 for T-Mobile. If you visit T-Mobile's Handheld store for businesses, you'll see the Treo 600 there. Clicking through the Treo 600 purchase link takes you through a back door to the palmOne Treo store, where you can buy the Treo 600 for T-Mobile after all.

So, I have to conclude that T-Mobile doesn't want individuals to buy a Treo 600, even if they are doctors who have a significant need for vertical market applications that run on the PalmOS. I'll probably still encourage my wife to buy a Treo, but we can get away with this because we can just as easily convert to a T-Mobile small business plan as we can to a T-Mobile Family & Friends Plan.

I guess I'm wondering why we have to go through these contortions.