Key Rugged Phone Manufacturer Shuts Down (theverge.com) 30
Jess Weatherbed reports via The Verge: Bullitt Group, the UK-based smartphone manufacturer behind the rugged handsets of Cat, Land Rover, and Motorola, has seemingly shut down. On Monday, Mobile World Live spotted several Bullitt Group employees on LinkedIn saying that the company folded on January 26th after a "critical planned restructuring" failed. The Telegraph reported earlier this month that the company was on the brink of insolvency. Bullitt Group has yet to issue an official statement confirming the closure. The manufacturer previously told The Telegraph that it planned to transfer its satellite connectivity business and all 100 of its employees to a new company owned by its creditors, though one former employee now claims the entire workforce has been laid off.
Founded in 2009, Bullitt found its niche producing mobile devices and accessories for other companies. The most notable are the hardy, rugged handsets like the Land Rover Explore and Motorola Defy series, though it also made more traditional smartphones like the Kodak Ektra. In recent years, the company placed greater focus on satellite connectivity projects like the Motorola Defy Satellite Link as it struggled to compete against larger phone providers like Apple and Samsung.
Founded in 2009, Bullitt found its niche producing mobile devices and accessories for other companies. The most notable are the hardy, rugged handsets like the Land Rover Explore and Motorola Defy series, though it also made more traditional smartphones like the Kodak Ektra. In recent years, the company placed greater focus on satellite connectivity projects like the Motorola Defy Satellite Link as it struggled to compete against larger phone providers like Apple and Samsung.
Their days were numbered (Score:3)
You can buy rugged protective cases for any popular smartphone, so it seemed superfluous to have a company specifically making rugged phones. I'm guessing they coasted for awhile on corporate purchasing inertia, since it probably took non-tech companies awhile to realize they could just buy an iPhone or Samsung for their employees and just stick it in an Otterbox (or one of the various similar brands of cases).
Re:Their days were numbered (Score:5, Insightful)
As an actual rugged phone user, no, a case is not a replacement for an actual rugged phone. For everyday people, maybe, but for those of us in fields that put actual abuse on the phone, not a chance.
My take is that they got taken for a ride by the Chinese players Blackview, Doogee and Ulefone. I have had friends own Cat phones, and the thing with those is the phone is expensive, but the tech inside is always hopelessly out of date, to the point that it is difficult to consider them smartphones at all. Not so with the Chinese phones, which while not polished to western flagship standards, are cheap, contain up to date hardware, and for people like me, will also take custom firmware if you do your homework upfront.
A rugged phone is never going to be a huge market, but it is a viable niche, it has actual competition and steady product releases. If you treat it lazy like you are the only game in town, you are going to have a bad time.
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As an actual rugged phone user, no, a case is not a replacement for an actual rugged phone. For everyday people, maybe, but for those of us in fields that put actual abuse on the phone, not a chance.
How about instead of a no true Scotsman fallacy, you point out exactly how these ruggedized phones (which as you said, generally consisted of overpriced, outdated tech in a tough plastic and rubber housing) are superior to the numerous 3rd party case offerings which can exceed US military standards?
If you want to compare anecdotes though, I'm in the construction industry and purpose-designed rugged phones died out about the same time BlackBerry faded from the corporate scene. In the trades, any "oops" that
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I would prefer a phone built from the ground up ruggedized instead of an add-on case.
I guess that depends on how messy your work can get. I kind of like knowing that if I let some duct mastic or expanding foam get on my phone it's just the case that's getting tossed and replaced, not the entire phone.
IR camera built into the phone would be convenient. Hell, while we're at it I'd also like my phone to include a refrigerant leak detector too. But having those as separate tools means it's not a factor I have to worry about next time I upgrade my phone.
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A case is something that collect contaminants between the phone and the case.
Re:Their days were numbered (Score:5, Insightful)
Hey man, sorry if I rubbed you the wrong way.
I did not say that the overpriced and outdated Cat phone is better than an aftermarket case. In fact I did the opposite and explained why I find it obvious that no one would actually want to buy a Cat phone. I was talking about the cheap and up-to-date Chinese ones.
A rugged phone is better than a case because:
If the case offers meaningful screen protection, it's going to make the screen less sensitive. The screen was not built for picking up fingers through a significant extra layer. And no matter what the IP rating says, there is going to be dust under the screen cover, and if it really is waterproof, I expect there to be moisture in between there, too.
If the case offers camera protection, good luck taking any photos that don't look like they where made by the turn of the century. And if you want an IR camera, you won't even find one on a regular phone, and even if you did, good luck finding a case with camera protection that will pass IR.
If the case offers meaningful mechanical protection, it's going to add extra bulk compared to a rugged phone, because the phone's own case is now useless dead space/weight.
If you toss your phone into the concrete mixer, I presume a truck where fishing it out and washing is not an option, at least the Chinese phone did not make too big a hole in your wallet. But if you drop the phone from the roof on to the pavement, if it's an iPhone, no matter the case, it's done. My Blackview, I curse that I have to get down and get it, but that's it.
As to milspec, I don't care what the ad on Amazon says, most of these cases are never going to have been tested, much less certified, for anything. And even for the ones that are, if you go and look up the touted standards, you will find that you exceed most of them by an order of magnitude on any given Tuesday.
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Hey man, sorry if I rubbed you the wrong way.
Everything comes across sounding worse on the internet, but I was genuinely curious what was your reasoning besides saying that real tradespeople need something more durable than a consumer phone in a rugged case. My experience (a little over a decade and a half in the HVAC industry) has been that most tradespeople now use the same phones as everyone else.
As to milspec, I don't care what the ad on Amazon says, most of these cases are never going to have been tested, much less certified, for anything.
Obviously there's a bit of caveat emptor involved in buying a decent case. Despite being a well-known brand, the original plastic shell with a rubber out
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I think the only big differences between a ruggedized phone and a consumer phone in a case is that the ruggedized phone would avoid use of more fragile elements. Like glass. Glass is used because it feels good on the finger and doesn't scratch as easily so if you have a screen that slides in and out of stuff, you won't end up with a horribly scratched screen after a few trips in and out of your pocket.
Of course, since glass can shatter from impact, it's not what you want to use in a ruggedized phone. Here,
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Expensive: Yes.
Old gen performance: Yes.
Rugged: Yes.
Useful extra features: Yes, the integrated IR-camera is what's really useful when you work with industrial tech.
I'm not after the latest hardware performance, I'm after something that's reliable and rugged. I have never experienced that that the hardware has limited me when I have had the three generations of CAT phones S60, S61 and S62.
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What do you mean by "taken for a ride"? It sounds like the Chinese manufacturers just out-competed them with a better product.
I've seen this before. The issue is that Western companies are not able to move fast enough. They will spec things like "parts available for a minimum of 5 years", so end up with low spec hardware that some bigger industrial player paid for the long term support on already. Meanwhile, the Chinese companies will be releasing a new model every year or two, and have close relationships
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I've heard of companies (in the US) certifying certain iPhones as Ex, basically that's an extra sticker with a 300% price hike.
But outside the US an iPhone is not always what people want and US style Ex is not necessarily valid in other jurisdictions.
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US style Ex is not necessarily valid in other jurisdictions.
You misspelled "never". The US FM certification is not applicable anywhere outside of the USA. Most of the world follows IEC-Ex or a local derivative of it.
That said you can get proper hazardous area certification for iPhones, but it is in the form of a dedicated case where the device is sealed into by a certified company and can't be user-removed (as it voids the certification). Also they are comically bulky.
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Predestined (Score:3)
Shitty support and no version updates. (Score:2)
My S60 phone can easily run the latest version of Andriod but they completely locked it down so I'm stuck at Android 6.0
Otherwise a great phone though.
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Only issues I had with the S60 was that the battery started to get "pregnant" twice.
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By "easily run the latest version of Android", you mean Android 8, the last version officially supporting the Snapdragon 617?
A lot of Android phones don't get new versions because Qualcomm can't be bothered supporting their old chips in new Android versions.
You phones nearly 8 years old, not even Apple support the latest iOS for phones that old. The iPhone X is newer than the S60 and is now stuck on iOS16.
Key? (Score:1)
However, there are lots of companies, mostly Chinese, building rugged smartphones, so this doesn't matter.
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Read the summary, including the first two words. Never heard of them.
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But at least you've never heard of the actual company, not whoever "Key" aren't.
"whomever" If you're going to be a worthless pedant at least be grammatically correct when doing so you don't look like an idiot.
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But it's an iPhone.
They aren't usable for me.
Land Rover? (Score:2)
Are you sure we're talking about phones?