Trouble continues to follow i-mate. On Friday, it laid off a large portion of its U.S. division. According to Engadget, the entire engineering, QA, and tech writing departments were affected. A number of other staff like the Chief Software Officer and VP of Sales and Marketing also gave their notice that day.
It appears that US carriers showed little interest in the i-mate Ultimate series after the numerous delays and model cancellations. For now, i-mate will sell unlocked Ultimates in the U.S. through a web portal.
During the Mobile World Congress, i-mate had announced that the Ultimates would also come with HSUPA connectivity.