Hyundai Mobile ditches UK launch plans

No dolphin-shaped phones for you

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1 July 2009 15:40 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

Hyundai's plans to launch its mobile phones into the UK market have been scrapped.

Oxfordshire-based Hyundai Mobile UK was due to enter the competitive UK market in the first half of 2009, following an announcement in January, but the collapse of its distribution partner, Advantage Cellular, has severely hindered the launch.

Although an alternative partner was said to be being considering, the company is now understood to have "ditched" the mobile plans "for the foreseeable future".

Hyundai Mobile UK exec Graham Jelfs told Mobile: "It's really sad after all the hard work that we're not able to launch as planned. The excellent PR campaign led to numerous phone calls and emails from consumers requesting our products".

Among the phones Hyundai was planning to offer UK consumers was a reasonably low-cost watch phone and a mobile shaped like a dolphin based on the rationale, "everyone likes dolphins".

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