Tablet designed by consumer retailer costs £1,099 SIM-free and is targeted at construction staff or environments where devices can be easily damaged
Global Mobile Communications (GMC) has launched one of the first ever rugged tablet devices.
The Northamptonshire-based dealer designed the tablet themselves, before partnering with a Chinese manufacturer for its production.
The tablet, which uses Windows software, has a SIM-free retail price £1,099 and will be predominantly targeted at staff working in construction or in environments where handsets are easily damaged.
It is now seeking a UK distribution partner for sales of the device, across mobile and IT in to both consumer and B2B channels.
The 3G and Wi-Fi compatible device comes with dual-SIM capabilities, a toughened screen and is designed to operate in temperatures from -10°C to 50°C, withstand dust and multiple drops from 1.5 metres. It runs on a Windows operating system and an in-built memory of 256MB, which can be expanded to 32GB.
GMC sales director Stephen Westley says the device offers a good mark-up for mobile dealers as it can be bundled with data deals from their existing partner networks.
Westley said: “This is a new market for us and we’ve had a lot of interest from mobile and laptop dealers.
“For traditional PC dealers this would be a venture into a new area and for mobile ones adding a deal with data and service should provide an excellent margin.
“We’re selling corporate at the moment. It is expensive but there is demand from companies who don’t want to have to replace iPads every five minutes and switch all of the data across.”
Meanwhile, the firm is also set to move to new, larger premises to increase the amount of office space for its operations which include online sales from its retail site thephonetrader.co.uk.