Is there no room for smaller smartphone makers?

John Chan | Sep 18, 2009

Yesterday, a report originating from ITP.net suggested that mobile phone company i-mate has gone out of business. According to the tech business news site, i-mate's employees were told to take two months of unpaid leave, but were later informed that the company was closing and the office locked.

It won't be too surprising if this report turned out to be true because this isn't the first it's happened. Remember MWg? The company bought O2's device business and folded without making so much as a dent in the smartphone market. These two companies have some things in common--they made mainly Windows Mobile devices, and secondly, things went downhill after HTC stopped supplying them handsets.

In all fairness, i-mate did make an attempt to differentiate itself. Its latest product, the 810-F, had a ruggedized exterior and was designed to take lots of abuse. But with HTC still strong in the WM space and big players like Samsung and LG providing inexpensive alternatives, there really doesn't seem to be any room for smaller companies to compete.

This is especially pronounced for smartphones with a fixed set of core features native in the underlying OS such as WM and Android. If you can't offer a compelling feature, irresistible design or rock bottom price, people will simply go for the bigger brand names when presented with a choice.

We are still awaiting confirmation from i-mate regarding its reported demise. In the meantime, take a look at some of the interesting prototypes the company showed off earlier this year--those may be the last we'll see from the company.

Filed under: Mobile Phones
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