Orange logoThe owner of Orange and T-Mobile has unveiled a £50 million investment plan that will help customers know their BlackBerries and their Apples.

A new development academy will train up to 12,000 staff, ensuring stores and call centres have experts dedicated to specific devices and their operating systems, such as Apple iOS, BlackBerry, Android and Windows phones.

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Everything Everywhere, which has a combined customer base of 27 million, said the move represented a "fundamental shift" in how mobile phones are sold by redesigning its customer service around handset operating systems.

Its investment plan aims to make staff experts in "all aspects of customers' digital lives" and has been sparked by the explosion in demand for smartphones.

Customer service staff will also be trained to answer other enquiries, such as billing without having to transfer customers between departments.

Chief customer officer Jackie O'Leary said: "It is our goal to create the best customer experience in the UK, so that customers can trust us with their digital lives."

The company, formed in 2010 by the merger of T-Mobile and Orange, is also refreshing and modernising its high street store estate.

It has already announced it will start selling both T-Mobile and Orange products across all of its stores. Earlier this year it started selling pre-pay T-Mobile dongles in Orange stores, and Orange broadband will be available in T-Mobile stores from this week.

Everything is spending more than £1.5 billion over the next three years in bringing faster and more reliable coverage to its customers amid the boom in smartphones.