When Caterpillar launched its first Android smartphone, the B15, back in 2013, it was unclear just what the company expected out of a product so foreign to its traditional yellow iron segments.
Was it simply a stab at a licensing success (such as Cat boots and apparel), meant to gauge demand for that CAT logo on the back of a phone? Or was it a commitment to a product category the company thought was being under-designed for in the construction and trades markets, where a phone can die a thousand different deaths?
Just three years later, and with a now company-wide focus on becoming a technology and heavy equipment provider, it’s clear Cat’s intentions were more in line with the latter. After launching an update to the B15 in the B15Q in 2014, Cat has built a full-on rugged smartphone lineup with the launch of the S50, S40 and S50c in the last year alone, scoring an exclusive carrier deal with Verizon on the S50c.
And now, just more than a month after the launch of the push-to-talk-enabled S50c, Cat has announced its latest smartphone in the lead up to the Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona, Spain. And beyond being the best looking, and most premium phone Cat has produced to date, it has a feature no other smartphone on the market can boast; one that is sure to endear it to even more of those working in the trades.
The FLIR system highlights temperature contrasts, and displays a visualization of heat invisible to the naked eye on the S60 display. Cat says the camera can detect heat and measure surface temperatures from a distance of 50 to 100 feet. It can also detect these temperature differences through obscurants such as smoke.
Cat says the FLIR camera on the S60 can be used for jobsite applications such as “detecting heat loss around windows and doors; spotting moisture and missing insulation; identifying over-heating electrical appliances and circuitry; and seeing in complete darkness.”
