Telstra, the largest mobile carrier in Australia, announced the availability of i-mate Ultimate 8502 and i-mate Ultimate 9502, being the first operator in the world to offer these handsets.

Telstra currently has almost 10 million subscribers, which means half the population of Australia, and, by releasing these two new handsets, it continues a long partnership with the Dubai-based company that led until now to the successful launch of 10 i-mate devices.

i-mate Ultimate 8502 and 9502 are both quad-band GSM handsets with 3.5G (HSDPA, 850 / 1900 / 2100 MHz) that run on Windows Mobile 6 and offer advanced features, including Direct Video Out (users can connect to a TV or digital projector to run video calls and presentations), Custom i-Q (enables users to easily and quickly define personal settings) and Secure i-Q (which can remotely lock and wipe the handset if it's stolen or lost).

"We don't believe that one size fits all," said Jim Morrison, CEO and Founder of i-mate. "We offer a full range of superior Windows Mobile powered devices. We then customize these devices to suit the unique requirements of individual customers. Add to that our range of innovative and free i-Q solutions, together with our extensive support and you have an exceptional total solution that's hard to beat."

Running on Telstra's Next G network, the fastest national mobile network in the world, the two i-mate handsets will provide high speed data downloading via HSDPA as well as high speed data uploading via HSUPA, providing users easy access to emails, documents and any other web content.

"These advanced devices from i-mate are rated at downlink speeds of up to 7.2Mbps and uplink speeds of 1.9Mbps, making them the fastest PDAs available on the Next G network," said Ms Holly Kramer, Telstra Product Management and Group Managing Director.

i-mate Ultimate 8502 measures 116 x 55 x 15 millimeters, weighs 140 grams and packs a 2.6 inch QVGA touchscreen, a 2.0 Megapixel camera, a full QWERTY keypad, GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, expandable memory and so on.

Measuring 116 x 60 x 17.8 mm and weighing 200 grams, i-mate Ultimate 9502 is a true Pocket PC that packs a wide 2.8 inch touchscreen with a 640 × 480 pixel resolution, a 39-key QWERTY keyboard hidden under the display and a 3 Megapixel camera with auto-focus, LED flash and video recording. Moreover, the handset comes with a secondary camera for video calls, built-in GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, microSD card slot, and can provide more than 4 hours of talk-time and up to 180 hours of stand-by time.

i-mate Ultimate 8502 will retail for 999 AUD ($905), while i-mate Ultimate 9502 will cost 1099 AUD ($995). Both devices will be available in Australia exclusively from Telstra, starting March 2008.