Thursday, August 16, 2007
i-Mate Ultimates Down To Two
Posted by Nurhisham Hussein in "HARDWARE" @ 07:00 AM
"It seems that i-mate has canceled arguably the three most interesting versions of its Ultimate line: the 5150 slider, 7150 QWERTY flip, and 9150 numeric flip. Remaining and now apparently scheduled for October production are the 8150 numeric candybar and keypadless 6150, devices that could be considered pretty uninteresting by the time they enter a market rife with 3G capable Windows Mobile 6 hardware."
Bad news - while this is based on an unconfirmed report, I'm inclined to believe the source. i-Mate's new products since the break in the relationship with HTC have been less than stellar, and the Ultimates would have gone a long way towards improving their product lineup, not to mention their reputation among gadget fans. I must admit I'm more than a little curious as to the reason for this (alleged) cancellation - was it complexity of the devices? Production costs? Or did i-Mate run out of development funds? Whatever the reason, if true, i-Mate will disappoint a lot of people.
UPDATESeems like the report was premature - CNet Asia have checked with i-Mate who state that the three "missing" models will be released later. When exactly that will be is at this stage still unknown, though the 6150 and 8150 are still slated for October this year.
UPDATE 2: i-Mate have issued a clarification. According to this report from Pocket PC Dubai, the Ultimates will be released in a 6-12 month time frame from now.
Bad news - while this is based on an unconfirmed report, I'm inclined to believe the source. i-Mate's new products since the break in the relationship with HTC have been less than stellar, and the Ultimates would have gone a long way towards improving their product lineup, not to mention their reputation among gadget fans. I must admit I'm more than a little curious as to the reason for this (alleged) cancellation - was it complexity of the devices? Production costs? Or did i-Mate run out of development funds? Whatever the reason, if true, i-Mate will disappoint a lot of people.
UPDATESeems like the report was premature - CNet Asia have checked with i-Mate who state that the three "missing" models will be released later. When exactly that will be is at this stage still unknown, though the 6150 and 8150 are still slated for October this year.
UPDATE 2: i-Mate have issued a clarification. According to this report from Pocket PC Dubai, the Ultimates will be released in a 6-12 month time frame from now.
