Geeksphone has been one of the most noticeable European phone makers since the smartphone era has commenced. Established back in 2009, GP was the first country in the continent to roll out an Android device to the markets and the first brand globally to launch a Firefox OS handset.
Evidently, after six years of being in a relatively good standing while maintaining its non-mainstream but tech-savvy philosophy, the company is ditching the smartphone industry for the fresh wearables market. Though, as you will figure out from the company’s comments below, the devices will be still available for developers to tinker with and for consumers to purchase – tech support will be on as well.
Co-founder Rodrigo Silva-Ramos said in a statement:
“[W]e have always tried to find the best balance concerning the values of open source and community development,.. In short, everything that belongs to Geeksphone belongs to its users.”
He later added:
“Mobile telephony has changed a lot in recent years,.. Our perception is that it is now a sector with great actors who have come to be where they are without much concern for innovation and without being concerned by the needs of its users.”
“When we started the Geeksphone project, we never imagined that we would develop six smartphones in just five years,.. “We are very grateful and proud of having achieved so many professional and personal success[es] and, above all, we are extremely proud to have received great recognition from both the industry and the users..”
So the new company the co-founder of GP will be working on from now is called geeks!me, which will be focusing entirely on wearable gizmos. Ramos himself mentioned that they already have a device in the works with a release coming in the next few months. The product primarily is an activity bracelet allowing users to essentially “carry a healthier pace of life, in harmony with the environment.”.
According to Ramos, the engineering personel along with other executive members will be moving to Silent Circle’s Blackphone, an incredibly secured mobile project which Geeksphone partnered with in 2013.
The real argument here is that Ramos ostensibly dropped Geeksphone to distance his adventures from front-running names such as Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Samsung (NASDAQ: SSNLF), though the wearables’ market has already been flooded with gadgets by respective tech giants. It will be interesting to see the companies new strategies to boost its presence out there and address competition as well.
