Ever wondered what happened to i-mate? After going bankrupt, and possibly leaving their CEO in danger of heading to Dubai’s debtor’s prison… news became a bit too quiet. The company was believed to have owned patents, a wide range of powerful devices, a couple of aging Windows Mobile applications, and a ruggedized phone platform that was starting to take off.
That last one may have been the motivating factor for HTC to acquire the company. HTC has struggled with ruggedized Windows Mobile phones, and that was i-mate’s last-ditch effort to save the company.
There is little-to-no information on the acqusition. In fact, the only way we found out about it was when HTC posted a phone number indicating that they were honoring i-mate warranties.
In case you were wondering about where i-mate cratered, you can now check that off your list of mysteries. Oddly enough, i-mate ran into financial (not to mention technical) difficulties when they struggled to break free from HTC as an Original Device Manufacturer (ODM). It seems a bit ironic that their final internal designs warranted HTC to acquire the company.
Watch the news from the CES, Las Vegas starting the 7th of January 2010!
Before HTC “fired” all their ODM customers a couple of years ago, they were the manufacturer of the i-mate and many other branded phones. I think this is the reason for the posting of this phone number, not that HTC has take over i-mate. They simply are giving owners of older HTC built products a way to get them repaired.
As far as I know (and I worked at i-mate in the US), there is little to nothing of value in the i-mate phones that would interested HTC and nothing exotic that HTC could not reverse engineer. The 810-F is the only product that i-mate actually engineered. None of the “Ultimate” series were engineered by i-mate as that was done by other OEM manufacturers in China, not i-mate.
I think this is jumping to a conclusion based on seeing the mention of i-mate on the HTC repair website. There is nothing based in fact to back up this report as it’s all conjecture.
HTC does not have rights to use the i-mate name. Also, HTC has never mentioned servicing i-mate devices before now. As you pointed out, i-mate hasn’t sold HTC devices in years, and has touted their Ultimate line. It would be very confusing for all those i-mate owners, and again, HTC wouldn’t have legal rights to use i-mate’s name in that manner anyways.
Even a company in bankruptcy has legal rights, and HTC had to have struck some sort of deal to take such action. We merely suspect that it’s extremely more likely that they purchased the 810-F design, and plan to sell i-mate’s only profitable venture.
How about some investigative journalism for a change? Ask yourself why HTC ditched i-mate, their biggest OEM at the time, especially as they had just floated on the AIM. Could it be a deal gone sour? Perhaps HTC did buy some of i-mate but didn’t get what was promised. Would the be likley to buy anything from i-mate again? Once bitten, twice shy.
Actually, we were quite familiar with the HTC/i-mate relationship, we’ve only been in this industry on a daily basis for six and-a-half years.
HTC ceased the relations with i-mate of their own volition, as HTC wanted to promote their own brand by selling their devices directly to consumers. And, that paid off big, as HTC is now flush with cash and able to run national multi-million dollar ad campaigns leveraging their brand.
i-mate however then pursed relations with TechFaith and other ODMs, which kept the company barely alive for years. The perpetually-delayed Ultimate line however couldn’t hold up the company when Broadcom’s trade embargo shut them out of the US market, where the Ultimate line was needed the most in terms of product matrixing.
However, i-mate spent their remaining R&D budget on attempting to secure military contracts and ruggedized consumers with their 810-F mil-spec phone. That is a market that HTC has failed to secure time and time again. At that point in a deal, which again, we never confirmed, simply pointed out was the most likely conclusion would have been for specific resources that HTC wanted. That’s what happens when you buy up a bankrupt company.
We always do investigative journalism, and I love showing that to readers when they doubt doubt us, especially when we have covered a story for six years straight. And, of course, we’ll continue to try to get a confirmation from HTC on what exactly happened… continuing our investigative journalism that goes beyond the competition.
looking at the page on the htc site, if you read the text, it is pretty clear it is for NON warranty repairs only, a revenue generating service, for htc made devices OR do we assume HTC have also aquired AT&T, Siemens and T-mobile as well ? As the list includes, Siemens, iMate, T-Mobile, Cingular / AT&T, HTC, all HTC manufactured
Actually, that’s not the case at all. The number is listed for warranty repairs next to other numbers for in-warranty repair. For example, the number is next to HTC’s phone number for unbranded phone servicing… the warranty status isn’t indicated either way on any of those numbers. Those phone numbers are set up for both in-and-out-of-warranty repairs.
Unfortunately, AT&T kept us on hold for over three hours today and Sprint didn’t get back to us on the ETF out situation that has developed. We have to prioritize our investigative reporting, as I’m sure you understand now from my last sentence, but fear not… we’ll get to the bottom of it.
Please read the HTC page again. It CLEARLY is for out of warranty devices:
“Repair Program
If you have a device that is out of warranty and wish to have it repaired or an HTC branded device that needs service, please contact the appropriate number below or email us at repair_inquiry@htc.com.”
To me this is clear that they are offering OUT OF WARRANTY repair services for i-mate devices. Since they aren’t likely to have any spare parts for the 810-F or Ultimate devices not made by HTC, it might be hard for them to repair them. This page may refer to the older, HTC built/i-mate branded devices.
Then again it might be a smart marketing ploy – get people to send in their broken non-HTC devices and then give them a discount on a new HTC equivalent model to secure a new customer. Brilliant!
Thanks Christoper for your continued work to delve into the i-mate situation. I have been posting links to some of these articles on a “Former i-mate employee” group on LinkedIn to keep my former colleagues informed.
— Kevin
We read that originally… however, those numbers are for both in-and-out of warranty repairs. They usually handle out-of-warranty repairs, as most of the issues on (USA) HTC devices are handled by the carriers directly.
The Ultimate devices used the Ericsson radio chip and was not subject to the Broadcom/Qualcomm disupte.
Ultimate devices used the Qualcomm MSM7200, which was embargoed. You are incorrect. There may have been a few i-mate devices that were using or going to use other chipsets, but they did not launch in the US.
So…would you recommend buying an phone made by I-mate considering they are going through bankruptcy? I don’t know a lot about phones and I have a friend who would like to buy one with wireless that works in Eastern Europe (where they live) and doesn’t have a lot of money to spend. The 8502 can be purchased on some websites for around $185. Thanks in advance for your input.
OK, So I own an Imate 810-F and the screen is cracked should I send it to these guys to have it repaired? I’ve called all around and no one seems to have a clue as to where a replacement part is. Not to mention it’s still under “Warranty” as I bought it in September last year and the went belly up basically the same month. What do I do???
does anyone have a cradle for an imate 810 f
Anyone know what’s going on with former iMate CEO’s huge divorce battle?