What Happened To Cat Phones
Cat phones are not being made. The company that built every one of them shut down in January 2024, and nothing has replaced them since.
If you own one, or you are about to buy one, this is what you need to know.
The short version
Caterpillar Inc. has never built phones. It licensed its name.
From 2012 to 2024 that licence was held by Bullitt Group, a British company that designed, built, sold, supported and warrantied every Cat phone. Bullitt ran out of money, laid off staff on 26 January 2024, and PwC was appointed as administrative receiver that March.
catphones.com no longer resolves. Support pages, firmware downloads and warranty channels went with the company.
In 2025 Caterpillar licensed the Cat phone range to Orbic, a manufacturer with US and Japanese operations. No Orbic-built Cat phone appears on Orbic’s own product pages.
One thing survived: the satellite messaging service.
Why Bullitt failed
Bullitt was a licensing business. It held phone licences for Caterpillar, Land Rover and Kodak, and built the rugged Motorola Defy line. Its final bet was satellite messaging. The Cat S75 and Motorola Defy 2, launched at MWC 2023, were among the first consumer phones with two-way satellite texting built in.
It was a genuinely good idea. It just needed volume it never got. Rugged phones are a small category, satellite service is expensive to run, and by late 2023 Apple and Google were shipping satellite features on mainstream phones at no extra cost. A restructuring that would have moved the satellite division into a creditor-owned company did not complete.
If you already own one
It still works. Nothing was disabled remotely. Calls, texts, apps, the camera, the thermal sensor on an S62 Pro all function exactly as before.
You will not get another update. Bullitt’s update servers went offline with the company:
| Model | Final Android version |
|---|---|
| Cat S75 | Android 13 |
| Cat S53 | Android 12 |
| Cat S22 Flip | Android 11 Go edition |
| Cat S62 Pro | Android 11 |
| Cat S42 / S42 H+ | Android 11 |
This is the part that actually matters. An unpatched phone is a growing risk for banking or work email. It is much less of an issue for calls, texts, maps and messaging. If your phone holds credentials worth stealing, move them to a supported device.
Your warranty is gone. No company assumed Bullitt’s obligations. In the UK and EU, statutory rights run against the retailer, not the manufacturer, so if you bought within the legal guarantee period you may still have a claim against the shop. That is the only route left.
Repairs are third-party only. Independent shops handle screens, batteries and charging ports. Nobody can restore a factory water seal to its original rating, so treat a repaired Cat phone as splash-resistant rather than IP68.
Firmware is not recoverable. Official images were hosted by Bullitt and are gone. Unofficial mirrors are unverified, and flashing one risks bricking a working phone with no recovery path.
Satellite messaging on the Cat S75 still works. Bullitt Satellite Connect was acquired by RCD 2023 Ltd, trading as RCD Bullitt, in February 2024. It has run without interruption since and still sells subscription plans. Contact RCD Bullitt for coverage questions, not Caterpillar.
Who owns the name now
Caterpillar still owns the trademark and always did. In 2025 it granted an international licence to Orbic, which already builds phones and hotspots for US carriers.
That is all that is reliably established. Several sites publish detailed specifications, model names and release dates for supposed new Orbic-built Cat phones. Those claims trace to AI-generated content farms, not to Caterpillar, Orbic or any journalist who has handled a device. We are not repeating them.
A new Cat phone under Orbic would be a new product line, not a continuation. Different manufacturer, different software team. It would not restore support for an S75 or an S22 Flip.
Should you buy one in 2026?
Reasonable if you want a cheap, tough, sealed handset for calls, texts, navigation and a couple of apps, you accept there is no warranty, and you pay a used-market price. An S22 Flip as a site phone or a distraction-free second phone is a sound purchase.
A bad idea if you need security patches, contactless payment or a good camera. And be careful what you pay: some sellers now ask more than these phones cost new. Scarcity is not the same thing as value.
The one real exception is the Cat S62 Pro. Its integrated FLIR Lepton 3.5 thermal camera is still hard to get in any phone at any price, and for an electrician or HVAC technician the sensor alone can justify the purchase regardless of the software situation.
If you want a rugged phone that is currently supported, Samsung’s Galaxy XCover line is the closest equivalent from a manufacturer that will still exist next year: comparable ruggedness, an ongoing update commitment, a replaceable battery and a real warranty. Unless you specifically need thermal imaging or satellite messaging, it is the better buy. What each Cat model actually costs now
The full model list
Bullitt shipped 25 Cat-branded devices:
- 2012: B10, B25
- 2013: B100
- 2014: B15, S50
- 2015: B15Q, B30, S30, S40
- 2016: S60
- 2017: S31, S41
- 2018: B35, S61
- 2019: B26, S48c, S52
- 2020: S32, S42, S62 Pro
- 2021: B40, S22 Flip
- 2022: S53
- 2023: S75
The S75 was the last. There was never a Cat S63, S63 Pro or S70, despite steady search traffic for all three. The line went from the S62 Pro straight to the S53 and S75.