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03/01/2008, 5:05pm, EST

Saturday, March 1st

i-Mate shuts down main US business

i-Mate's office in Redmond, Washington has been almost completely dissolved, with the company laying off almost its entire workforce, while others left on their own volition. According to Engadget, the Dubai-based company ran into problems with US distribution of its Ultimate line of communication devices. This led to i-Mate laying off almost its entire US operations team, including the engineering, quality assurance, and technical writing departments.

The company will still sell unlocked product through a US web portal, which the former sales director has supposedly agreed to run.

The closure comes shortly after i-Mate had refreshed the Ultimate line of products with HSUPA internet connectivity on February 12th, which evidently wasn't enough to sustain the company.


Filed under: industry, peripherals
Other story tags: distribution, i-mate, closure, lay offs

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WTH
0
03/01, 6:23pm, EST
How is this relevant to Apple products? The only connection between this i-Mate and Apple is the letter *i*.

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btw
0
03/01, 6:27pm, EST
it's not even compatible with Macs!
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Imate
0
03/01, 7:13pm, EST
I would never again own an I-Mate phone they are crap ... too many unfixed bugs and problems
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high on promise,
0
03/01, 10:07pm, EST
low on delivery and marketing? It seems it had connectivity options far beyond your US cell phone company offerings, but R&D and marketing wasn't funded sufficiently to gain a significant advantage and mind-share advantage.

Too bad for the employees, apparently. It's good that someone has agreed to maintain contact with the company's existing customer base, but sadly, it's a sales person. The only way "the name" could redeem itself is through a strong connection with the developer community, and an undying love of the project by its final representative. That's a staggeringly up-hill struggle for capital and buy-in just waiting to happen.

Perhaps a strategic partnership from the copy-write/trademark/patent holders with a Skype or other marginally interested relevant party is the only real avenue...

Good luck on providing a robust user experience regardless of the user's computer platform choice.
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Joe
0
03/02, 1:19pm, EST
beluashark, This story isn't under iPodnn or Macnn, but instead under electronista.com, so...it is relevant. Pay attention next time.
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lamewing
0
03/02, 1:30pm, EST
lamewing, don't lecture beluashark...this was headlined at macnn, and I don't know about you, buy the access keys for this article are mac (win) and I'm being gently reminded for a longer post, I need to visit the macintosh area at forums.macnn.com

So YOU pay attention. The owners of macnn are driving traffic to their non-mac site, on non-mac articles....and quit trying to make the world upside, people have a right to complain about it.
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lamewing
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03/02, 1:30pm, EST
Oh yes it is! This article is posted on Macnn's news-page and clicking it brings readers to this page. So you need to pay attention and check your info next time.

no pun intended.
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