As Gearlog just reported:
Earlier this month we announced that the Sonim
XP3, a super-rugged GSM phone, would soon be coming to the US. Sonim
just wrote to us with an update, saying that the phone will be
available to more people in more places than we thought before. The XP3
is still coming out in early 2009.
"To reach people interested in their rugged products, Sonim will target
rural GSM carriers, outdoors stores, retail chains where contractors
have open accounts, warehouse clubs where businesses buy, and large
enterprises such as utilities and package-delivery companies," the
company said.
So even if you don't live in a rural area, try your local big-box store
early next year for this super-rugged gadget. For full details on the
XP3, see our earlier post.
Reed Business Information also covered the XP3:
Sonim Technologies, a Silicon Valley newcomer to the cellular
industry, is entering the U.S. market with what it calls the most
rugged cellphone in the world following its launch of ruggedized phones
in 32 other countries, mostly in Europe but also in Australia and New
Zealand.
In the United States, Sonim is targeting
distribution channels that reach Sonim's target consumer: “people who
work or play in extreme environments,” said president/CEO Bob Plaschke.
They include “very aggressive outdoorsmen” who need a durable phone as
well as construction workers, engineers, plumbers, builders and other
tradesmen that need a phone that they can use on the job, he said. The
combined market, dubbed a micro niche by Sonim, represents about 2
percent of the U.S. population, he said.
These users would
be attracted to phones that Sonim promises will be more rugged than
anything else on the market, including Motorola phones operating on
Sprint's iDEN network. The potential for rugged phones is growing in
the U.S., he noted, because the selection of rugged iDEN-network phones
shrank during the past five years.
