modu at MWC: New JBL skin, deal with Telefonica, and an order from Asia

modu, the folks behind the world’s lightest mobile phone, was full of news for the Mobile World Congress. More precisely they announced three important things:

• First we saw them unveiling the modu music jacket (pictured above), which was developed in partnership with JBL. As you can guess for yourself, this jacket is designed for music lovers and in that sense comes with two JBL Odyssey speakers for “clear, dynamic sound and deep bass.” Specs wise, it adds 2.2-inch display, 3.2-megapixel camera with flash, standard 3.5mm audio jack and a digital sound meter. Manufactured by PCH Interna­tional, the modu music jacket is expected to start selling later in the year.
• Then we had modu along with Telefonica (NYSE: TEF) announcing an agreement to conduct a pilot of modu mobile phones in Latin America. The pilot is set to begin within weeks (they say “shortly after Mobile World Congress”) in three markets: Mexico, Argentina and Chile.
• Finally, modu signed an exclusive agreement with Lynk Communications to distribute modu phones and modu jackets in the Philippines, with agreements in several other countries in the region to be announced at a later date. An initial order, valued in total at $38.5 million, should help modu drive its business forward. On the other hand, people of the Philippines should see modu phones and jackets hitting the market during the second quarter of this year.

And I was thinking modu is going out of business. I’m super glad they’re well and alive, to bring additional innovation in the space!