i-Mate’s office in Redmond, Washington has been almost completely dissolved, with the company laying off almost its entire workforce, while others left on their own volition. According to Engadget, the Dubai-based company ran into problems with US distribution of its Ultimate line of communication devices. This led to i-Mate laying off almost its entire US operations team, including the engineering, quality assurance, and technical writing departments.

The company will still sell unlocked product through a US web portal, which the former sales director has supposedly agreed to run.

The closure comes shortly after i-Mate had refreshed the Ultimate line of products with HSUPA internet connectivity on February 12th, which evidently wasn’t enough to sustain the company.