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3GSM 2006 coverage: audio interview with Jim Morrison - CEO of i-mate
February 15, 2006 [General] | By Edward J. R.

As last year, also this year i-mate is present at exhibition part of 3GSM 2006 World Congress. Last year i-mate announced at 3GSM a partnership with Skype and embedding of Skype into all i-mate phones, and this year i-mate officially launched i-mate Smartflip (a flip phone that is not thicker than Motorola RAZR) and a suite of applications. In this review Jim Morrison talks about his company and why it is worth buying i-mate phones rather than Qtek or Dopod or operator branded phones and he also reveals name and launch date of HTC Hermes branded by i-mate - a small Pocket PC phone with UMTS/3G support and video calling feature.

(on photo above Jim Morrison with ultra-slim i-mate Smartflip smartphone)

i-mate is probably the largest distributor of Windows Mobile phones manufactured by HTC ...

... and while i-mate branded handsets may be a bit more expensive than form other distributors and operators, they are SIM unlocked and i-mate offers some more services, more software and more support than others. Shortly speaking: i-mate is vital for overall success of Windows Mobile and all people who would prefer buying handset without 24-months subscription from operators, or without operator SIM lock, may consider this company as source of the latest HTC made Windows Mobile phones!

Here are the highlights from this interview:

i-mate is public company on stock market in London and Jim Morrison owns over 50% of the company
he is of Scottish origins ; in the interview he also expresses his opinion about haggis but you must listen to it yourself!
i-mate is pondering using other manufacturers than HTC but these other manufacturers cannot be revealed until these phones will be launched
he is not interesting in launching of Xda Atom under i-mate brand
at 3GSM 2006 i-mate launched 2 devices: i-mate Smartflip (very thin, quad band, EDGE, flip phone, MS Smartphone) and i-mate JAMin (next version of i-mate JAM)
he reveals that Qtek is a brand owned by HTC and that Qtek is not a competition to i-mate
i-mate provides more support than Qtek and that's why it sells more devices than Qtek at some websites
he reveals that Dopod is owned by chairwoman of HTC who also owns some (a lot) shares of HTC ; Dopod however is focused on selling HTC devices in Asia (not USA and Europe)
he explains why it is better to buy i-mate phones, even if they are a bit more expansive, than other HTC manufactured devices
he says that he was the one who designed the original Xda Pocket PC phone for O2 in UK (and that later was sold elsewhere). He even says that it was "me, myself and I" (speaking of himself) who designed it!
i-mate has a team of engineers, who optimize devices for markets and run customizations
i-mate provides support "by engineers and not by 17 years old kids"
i-mate offers to owners of i-mate phones a club i-imate site with support, freebies, free Microsoft Exchange Server account (with push email already supported), cheaper software, etc, etc
i-mate will start putting on servers the ROM upgrades with push email on February 23, 2006 (roughly speaking, approximate date)
by the way he mentions that i-mate has already "a couple hundred thousands handsets" with Windows Mobile 5.0 sold
he mentions that the name for HTC Hermes will be "i-mate JASJAM" or "i-mate JAS K-JAM" but then he confirms with one of the ladies present, that it will be "i-mate JASJAM" and "JAS" part indicates a phones that support 3G/UMTS
he speaks about nature of cooperation with HTC
he comments how i-mate competes with Nokia - what i-mate can and Nokia can't
i-mate games discussed
locations of i-mate discussed: Glasgow/Scotland, Australia, Dubai (base), USA
i-mate Smartflip presented (even when closed it is thinner than Orange SPV C500 / HTC Typhoon):