Business | Technology
i-Mate to launch 12 new smart phones
Mobile devices firm i-mate will launch 12 new smart phones in the next 12 months, including the first units produced after supply constraints forced profits down in 2006.
- By Ivan Gale, Staff Reporter
- Published: 00:13 August 22, 2007
- i-Mate's new phones in the Jama, Urban and Ultima categories, will run on the Windows Mobile operating system.
- Image Credit: Gulf News archive
Dubai: Mobile devices firm i-mate will launch 12 new smart phones in the next 12 months, including the first units produced after supply constraints forced profits down in 2006.
i-mate will bolster three separate product lines with new devices this year, each running on the Windows Mobile operating system.
Jama, its entry-level line of small, lightweight devices priced between Dh1,299 to Dh1,499, will grow by two while four new phones in the mid-priced range of Urban phones will be released in the Middle East in the coming months. Urban phones are priced at roughly Dh2,000.
Marketing blitz
The company will also introduce six high-end Ultimate devices in the next six to 12 months priced in the Dh3,200 to Dh3,400 range, said Jack Craine, i-mate's newly appointed global sales director.
As a Dubai-based company, i-mate will use the Gitex IT exhibition as its largest marketing event of the year, said Craine, especially as Middle East revenues represent roughly 30 per cent of its global sales.
Three of the new phones - the Ultimate 6150, Ultimate 8150 and the Urban 201, featuring a QWERTY-based keyboard - will be displayed at Gitex. i-Mate will also promote its new online service and support portal during the event.
The maker of wireless handheld converged devices is also expanding throughout the GCC. The company is in the midst of appointing distributors in Saudi Arabia and will also introduce the Jama range of entry-level devices into Kuwait, Craine said.
In its fiscal year ending in March, i-mate posted a pre-tax loss of $2.1 million for the first time since the company's founding in 2001. Much of the difficulties was attributed to the loss of its primary manufacturer.
Chinese firm HTC served as sole manufacturer for i-mate from the beginning, but in November the two firms ceased their partnership. HTC now sells its own branded devices while i-mate works with multiple manufacturers.
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