Chairman Bernard Cragg said that with the Windows Mobile market projected to grow at 400%, i-mate is in an ideal position to lead this growth.
While Glasgow, UK-based i-mate built up sales of its handsets in the softer markets of the Middle East, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, Europe, where revenue rose 110% to $75m, now accounts for 36% of sales.
However, the company has been disappointed by its efforts in the US, where it has been hindered by the lack of an appropriate product, and with Microsoft’s help, it now hopes to make some progress there. The company said SMEs represent a huge potential market for smart mobile devices as employee mobility continues to increase. It quoted a Canalys estimate that there are 19.2 million companies with fewer than 500 employees in western Europe alone. Canalys predicts that the opportunity for enterprise mobility is enormous as only 1.2% of corporate email boxes have been mobilized.
i-mate said it sees its target market as the 250 million Microsoft Exchange seats worldwide and the small companies that require technical support while mobile.
