I-mate

i-mate is a company selling Windows Mobile-powered devices. The Group was launched by now CEO Jim Morrison. Jim was involved in the team at O₂ that designed the first O2 Xda Pocket PC phone. He subsequently obtained rights to HTC products outside of O₂ territories and setup i-mate with his team in Glasgow, Scotland to deliver into the market place. It is now based in Dubai, and is operating in the UK, Italy, Armenia, Australia, India, the U.S.A. and South Africa. At the end of March 2006, i-mate had posted a profit of USD $22.5 million and sold over 420,000 Windows Mobile phones.

Products

From the beginning of its existence until fall of 2006, i-mate sold branded versions of Pocket PCs, PPC phones, and smartphones manufactured by Taiwanese mobile device giant HTC. In September 2006, HTC ended this relationship with i-mate (at the same time it cut ties with O₂). This was announced soon after HTC started selling devices under its own brand name in Europe and purchased the PPC/smartphone distributor Dopod which serves Asia and Australia. Since the end of its relationship with HTC, i-mate has begun carrying devices from other manufacturers, including Inventec and TechFaith.

A non-comprehensive list of devices release by i-mate in chronological order; the release dates listed most often refer to the date the device was officially announced by the company rather than when it was available in stores:

*Smartphone (HTC codename: Tanager; May 2003) - i-mate's very first smartphone; this bar-style phone runs Microsoft Smartphone 2002 and features a 120MHz ARMv5 processor, 16MB RAM, 32MB ROM, a 176x220 65K color reflective TFT screen, and IrDA.

*Pocket PC Phone Edition (HTC codename: Himalaya; Sept 2003) - i-mate's first device running the PPC version of the Windows Mobile OS, which, in this case, is Windows Mobile 2003; hardware features include a 400MHz ARMv5 processor, 128MB RAM, 64MB ROM, a QVGA (240x320) touchscreen, Bluetooth, IrDA, and a VGA (640x480) camera with QVGA video recording.

*SP2 (Smartphone2) (HTC codename: Voyager; April 2004) - similar in shape and size to the original SP, this model features an updated OS (Windows Mobile 2003), a slightly faster 132MHz processor, 64MB RAM, 32MB ROM, Bluetooth, IrDA, and a built-in VGA (640x480) camera.

*SP3 (HTC codename: Typhoon; Oct 2004)

*PDA2k (HTC codename: Blue Angel; Oct 2004) - Windows Mobile 2003 PPC phone with a 400MHz ARMv5 processor, 128MB RAM, 64MB ROM, a QVGA screen, full slide-out QWERTY keyboard, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, IrDA, and VGA camera with QVGA video recording capabilities.

*PDA2k EVDO (HTC codename: Harrier; Oct 2004) - this is i-mate's first 3G capable device, and, according to the company, the first 3G device running Windows Mobile; This Windows Mobile 2003 SE CDMA PPC phone supports the CDMA2000 1xRTT and 1xEV-DO WAN standards, and features a 400MHz ARMv5 processor, 128MB RAM, 64MB ROM, a QVGA screen, full slide-out QWERTY keyboard, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, IrDA, and VGA camera with QVGA video recording capabilities

*JAM (HTC codename: Magician; Oct 2004) - small form factor PPC phone based on Windows Mobile 2003 SE (Second Edition) with 64/128 MB RAM (depending on the revision), 64MB ROM, QVGA (240x320) screen. Features include Bluetooth, IrDA, and 1.3MP camera with QVGA video recording capablitity.

*SP3i (HTC codename: Feeler; Dec 2004)

*PDA2 (HTC codename: Alpine; May 2005) - this Windows Mobile 2003 SE PPC phone resembles i-mate's original Pocket PC Phone Edition but has superior hardware specs including a 520MHz CPU, 128MB RAM, 128MB ROM (64MB flash, 64MB storage), QVGA screen, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, IrDA, and 1.3MP camera.

*JASJAR (HTC codename: Universal; Sept 2005) - Featuring a VGA (640x480) rotating screen (like a convertible tablet notebook), full QWERTY keyboard, 3G capabilities, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, IrDA, "1.3MP" primary camera with flash, CIF (352x288) secondary camera, built-in stereo speakers.

*K-JAM (HTC codename: Wizard; Sept 2005)

*SP5m (HTC codename: Tornado Tempo; Oct 2005)

*SP5 (HTC codename: Tornado Noble; Dec 2005)

*JAMin (HTC codename: Prophet; Feb 2006) - Features include Windows Mobile 5, Wi-Fi, 2MP camera, and video recording capability of 320x240.

*PDA-N (HTC codename: Galaxy; Feb 2006)

*DD (Developer Device)

*Smartflip (HTC codename: Star Trek; June 2006)

*JASJAM (HTC codename: Hermes; Aug 2006)

*SP JAS (HTC codename: Breeze; Sept 2006)

*SPL (TechFaith codename: unknown/nonexistent; Sept 2006)

*JAQ (Inventec codename: Mercury; Sept 2006)

*Momento (Digital Picture Frame) (Developed by i-mate UK; January 2007)

*Ultimate (2007) [http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/ctiasf07/i+mate-makes-official-north-american-push-with-4-windows-mobile-smartphones-313801.php]

External links

* [http://www.imate.com/ Official i-mate website]

References