Canada's Sierra Wireless says it will cancel its Voq smartphone, widely seen as a market failure, and will shift its resources to its core business of PC cards and embedded modules for wireless data communications. Out of approximately 319 Sierra Wireless employees, 55 worked on Voq.
Sierra had promoted Voq as a combination mobile phone, personal messaging device and PDA. Yet the company faced strong competition from similar devices, including Research In Motion's popular BlackBerry. Sierra Wireless valued its Voq business, including inventory, equipment, licenses, patents, trademarks and contracts, at about C$15 million (US$12 million).
For more on Sierra's changing strategy:
- read this Canadian Press article