Goodbye i-mate.

We’d heard the rumours but now it’s becoming more official by the hour – i-mate is gone. The company, headed up by Jim Morrison, closed it’s Dubai office today. Staff were told to take “compulsory two months unpaid leave” in an email last Wednesday, which is never good news. The next day things got worse with the office being locked and staff told that i-Mate was to close down.


The last we saw from i-mate was their rugged 810-F handset, although we’ve also reviewed their i-mate 8150 and 6150 handsets. It’s been a long and rocky road for i-mate, who originally re-badged HTC kit for sale and did very well out of it. However, following the launch of HTC as a direct manufacturer, i-mate produces several well-spec’d but unglamorous and sometimes flaky devices which couldn’t maintain their initial success in the marketplace.


Link – ITP.net