[android] UK-based Wileyfox enters administration

[Arthur]

Sources: Reddit / Android Police

 

United Kingdom-based phone manufacturer Wileyfox entered the Android smartphone scene in 2015, when it released the Storm and Switft phones. The low-end Spark was released later, in mid-2016. They were budget phones running the short-lived Cyanogen OS, and when Cyanogen collapsed, the company started developing its own ROM.

 

A community manager at Wileyfox has revealed on Reddit that Wileyfox is undergoing administration. For those of you not familiar with it, administration is a process in the UK where a company gives full control of itself to a person (or small group of people), in order to pay off debts to creditors. The person writing the Reddit post said he had been laid off as a result of the administration process.

 

It's not clear at this time if Wileyfox is permanently shutting down. If the administrators can pay off the company's debts or find a buyer, then Wileyfox could return at some point. The UK Companies House listing for Wileyfox still shows the company as active, so it has not been dissolved just yet.

 

As of the time of writing, the company has not made a formal announcement on its site or any of its social media accounts. It's always unfortunate when a company goes under, especially since many people end up losing their jobs - let's hope Wileyfox can make it through.

[Arthur]

Wileyfox has a month to find a saviour or face liquidation

 

Wileyfox, the British smartphone maker that went into administration last month, has until the end of the month to find a rescuer before it faces liquidation.

 

The company started selling budget handsets in 2015 via retailers such as Carphone Warehouse, but has struggled to compete against more established names and a rise in component costs amid the pound’s weakness last year.

 

In February it brought in restructuring firm Quantum as administrators after it was unable to keep up with £11m of debts following the collapse of Russian bank Promsvyazbank and was unable to pay its distributor. Promsvyazbank was bailed out by Russia’s central bank last year but has stopped lending to overseas businesses.

 

Wileyfox, which sold phones for under £200 and is one of only a handful of British smartphone companies, hoped to find success by running a custom version of the Android operating system made by the American developer Cyanogen, which shut down in 2016.

 

It continues with a skeleton staff of around six people and is hoping to relaunch operations once it finds new investment. But Quantum’s Andrew Andronikou, one of the joint administrators, said if it did not find a rescuer within the next month the company is likely to be wound up.

 

Mr Andronikou said that there had been discussions with a number of parties but that the talks were yet to yield a solution and that the business itself is “on ice”.

 

Wileyfox was founded by two Microsoft veterans with investments from early-stage investor Venturespring.

 

The company had around 100 staff around the world, with a base in London.

 

The demise of Wileyfox would make it the second British smartphone maker to go under in less than 12 months.

 

Last year Vertu, a Hampshire-based Nokia spin-out which made handsets for wealthy clients costing as much as £20,000, collapsed and was liquidated.

[CAM]

Shame as I use a Wileyfox second-gen handset and find it to be quite nice.

[mavhc]

Wileyfox were great at pushing security updates, sigh. Where can I get normal priced (£200) good phones from with stockish android and security updates for 2 or 3 years?

[webman]

Wileyfox were great at pushing security updates, sigh. Where can I get normal priced (£200) good phones from with stockish android and security updates for 2 or 3 years?

 

Nokia have committed to 2 years of updates with (some?) of their latest Android devices.

 

https://www.nokia.com/en_int/phones/android

[Arthur]

Where can I get normal priced (£200) good phones from with stockish android and security updates for 2 or 3 years?

Like @webman suggested, Nokia is probably your best bet.

 

The Nokia 6 costs ~£200 and actually one of the best built Android smartphones available.

 

 

Essential are also very good with security updates (approx. 3 years), but they don't currently have any phones in the £200-£300 range.

 

Essential and Google are the best at updating their phones with security patches, according to SecurityLab

 

There's also the really cheap Android Go phones, but they might be too cheap.