I thought that.....
They already built a robot
JCB has dabbled with mobile phones before, generally offering rugged handsets with limited capabilities. But with the world cementing interest in smartphones, the company has finally chiselled its first Android blower, the Toughphone Pro-Smart. JCB Toughphone Pro-Smart While the digger maker did team with Motorola for a JCB …
How is it better than they Defy+JCB you referenced? The IP-rating is the same, both have a shock-resistant casing, same version of Android, but this has a smaller screen, slower CPU, and is more expensive.
Please could you add some journalistic input to your articles otherwise it sounds too much like the press release, I'd like to know why you decided to write about this phone when it has no USP.
I guess the main USP is that this is JCB's first smartphone? Doesn't look very good or anything, but it's still a rugged phone that serves a purpose and has multiple USPs.
Secondly, the Defy has never been IP-rated, so while essentially it offers the same protection, it isn't officially certified to do so. See link for debate.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1113432
I had the classic 3210 for years. From time to time when the screen became illegible from dust... Took front and back covers off, blew/wiped masses of dust off the business bit, washed other bits and dried under the hand drier, put back together, sorted!
It was a mosh pit at the Brixton Academy that finally put it on its death bed and even then it clung on slowly losing functions for a week or so. In the final hours just defaulting to a simple tone and unable to display the caller, just "call". Freeky!
Anyone who has been caught in the deluges in Singapore, Malaysia or elsewhere in the Indochina region that they call monsoons but in reality have more in common with a shower turned on full blast will appreciate this type of handset / cell.
With 'cheap' iPhone replacement Motherboards damaged by water costing the best part of $400, anything that offers protection against rain is welcome. I remember a Panasonic water proof unit along with one from Sony-Ericson that sold very well out here.
There's something detracting about someone fishing a iPhone out of a plastic bag to answer a call, and that's when you have found shelter to do even that it.
The soaking quality of these downpours that can happen without notice, means that almost all clothing is useless for protection of personal electronics.