Ruggedised handset company Bullitt Group is set to go into voluntary administration according to a report in the Telegraph.
The Telegraph reported that Bullitt’s satellite connectivity business and 100 employees would be transferred to a new company owned by its creditors.
A source close to the company told Mobile News that it was not surprising that Bullitt had called in administrators,
“They haven’t brought out any new products to market except satellite messaging. Their staple line hasn’t changed in years. There has been no investment in any new devices apart from the CAT s75. I suspect the owners no longer wanted to be involved in that business, They now want to concentrate on satellite text messaging but where is the money in that? Is it just for people who climb mountains?”
Since 2009 Bullitt Group has specialised in designing and manufacturing rugged smartphones and i known for producing rugged smartphones under various brand partnerships, such as CAT, Land Rover, and Motorola.
A year ago the company launched the world’s first Android smartphone capable of two-way satellite messaging at the same time that Apple announced the same capability for the iPhone 14. Bullitt Satellite Connect integrated satellite and network infrastructure partners to provide satellite text messaging via Bullitt Satellite Messenger.. It is claimed by Bulitt the only direct-to-satellite service using the 3GPP standards
Last year Iridium and Qualcomm’s plan of covering the world’s surface with an emergency texting service accessible through Snapdragon satellite-chip Android smartphones fell apart. Iridium blamed smartphone makers for not including the technology in their devices, leading Qualcomm to end the agreement.