At Mobius 2006 Boston, Jim Morrison, i-mate founder and CEO, announced that the company plans to launch 15 devices in the next year. According to the::unwired, most of these will be Pocket PC Phone devices but at least a few will be Windows Mobile Smartphone devices. The new devices will fall into three classes: Ultimate for those who require the latest and greatest, Stealth for corporate customers and average consumers and Light for the low-end mass market.
Apparently, i-mate’s contract with HTC still has a few months to go on it but i-mate is focused on releasing exclusive designs only so it is unlikely we will see more HTC devices. It sounds to me like no more than marketing spin.
Furthermore, Jim Morrison claims that the i-mate JAQ was deliberately designed to be ugly in response to corporate requests. Ugly devices are less likely to be stolen or used by employees outside of the office. Sure, if you say so…