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Wileyfox has struck a deal with fellow British company STK that will keep the brand alive. Back in February, the UK-based smartphone manufacturer went into administration, with an employee confirming via Reddit that the company had been taken over by administrators, and no future updates would be pushed out to devices. Now, though, just over a month after the announcement, and in a major turn of events, the brand has reached a licensing agreement with STK.
As part of the deal, STK will be allowed to sell Wileyfox’s devices in South Africa, the UK, and the rest of Europe, while also providing any after-sales services that are needed such as customer support. It will also be offering its STK Care app to current Wileyfox owners, opening up access to live chat support directly from their devices. In addition to this, it has been confirmed that STK will honor any warranties while continuing to sell the Wileyfox Swift 2, Swift 2 Plus, and Swift 2 X. Furthermore, as an extra incentive to current owners of these devices, STK has announced that the Android 8.1 update will roll out within the next three weeks. STK doesn’t just have plans for current Wileyfox phones, though. In fact, STK has confirmed that it’s in the process of creating a new roadmap for the brand that will commence in the second half of this year with a number of new smartphones. For now sales of current devices are yet to restart, but STK’s Commercial Director, Henri Salameh, did state that they are currently working on a redesign of Wileyfox’s website, while also teasing that customers should “watch this space in the next two weeks.”
The merger of the companies will see the two brands working together to strengthen their respective portfolios. After all, according to Salameh, STK has stronger production channels, while Wileyfox has a much stronger online presence, thus proving beneficial to both. Furthermore, the companies also compete at different price points, with STK expected to keep it this way in the near future in order to avoid any potential overlapping. Currently, though, STK is yet to confirm if Wileyfox will continue to ship devices with Amazon Alexa pre-installed, or if any incentivized offers on the e-commerce site will continue to be available.