SAMS is appointing distributors for the IS-04Z1 ahead of the Q4 2026 launch, in defined territories, with the technical and marketing support to sell a properly certified product once certification is complete. Appointments are being made now so that partners are trading from day one rather than starting then.
Appointing ahead of Q4 2026 · certification in progress
The intrinsically safe handset market is unusual. It is small, technically demanding and dominated by a handful of long-established names, several of whom sell devices designed years ago on Android releases their own customers’ IT departments no longer accept. Buyers are safety and engineering people who do not respond to consumer marketing, and the sale is won on the certificate, the specification and the support behind it.
That suits a distributor already selling into hazardous areas: gas detection, safety instrumentation, industrial communications, PPE and site services. You hold the operator vendor numbers, you know which plants are in a turnaround this year, and your engineers already read a certificate schedule. What is usually missing is a modern device to put in front of those customers, with a manufacturer who answers a technical question the same week.
SAMS offers a defined territory, pre-launch pricing on request, direct access to our engineering and certification people rather than a call centre, co-branded documentation you can issue under your own name, and enough notice of the certification timeline to plan your stock and demonstration programme. What we do not offer is exclusivity by default, an unrealistic launch date, or a claim we cannot evidence.
The honest position: the IS-04Z1 is pre-launch and IECEx, ATEX and NEC 500 certification are all in progress. A distributor coming in now takes a position on a product before the certificates issue, which is why appointments made now are on better terms than appointments made in 2027. We will not ask you to quote a lead time or a stock position that does not exist, and we would prefer you did not.
These are the commitments SAMS makes to an appointed partner. Commercial terms, volumes and any exclusivity are agreed per territory in the distribution agreement rather than published here.
Appointments are made by country or region, with the sectors and account types written into the agreement so that everyone knows where the boundaries are. We would rather appoint one serious partner in a market than three who compete on price and none of whom invests. Where a territory already has a partner, we will say so on the first call rather than let you build a plan on it.
Distributor pricing is available on request now, ahead of launch, and partners appointed before the certificates issue are positioned better than those appointed after. We do not publish prices, and we will ask you not to either until launch pricing is fixed. Terms, minimum commitments and any stock arrangement are part of the agreement.
Direct access to the people running the certification programme and the product design, for pre-sales questions, area classification queries, MDM and enterprise deployment questions and application compatibility. When a customer’s instrumentation engineer asks about a condition of safe use, you get the real answer, not a brochure.
On completion of certification, partners receive the IECEx Certificate of Conformity, the ATEX certificate and marking string, the EU and UK declarations of conformity and the relevant national certificate, together with a co-branded datasheet, comparison material and the user manual, so you can issue a technical pack under your own name.
Product photography, copy, the datasheet, presentation material, exhibition support and translated collateral where a market needs it. The website already runs in several languages, and country pages exist for the launch markets, so a partner arrives into a market that has some search presence rather than none.
Sales and technical training on the device, on intrinsic safety fundamentals and on the certification programme, plus evaluation units for your own demonstration stock and for placing with customers in safe areas ahead of launch. Classified-area pilots follow the issue of the relevant certificate.
Four steps, usually over a few weeks rather than months. We will tell you at the first or second step if a territory is not open, so nobody wastes time.
Send your company, the country or region you cover, the sectors you already sell into, the operators and contractors you are registered with, and the product lines you carry. If you already hold vendor numbers with the major operators in your market, say so, because that is the single most useful thing about a hazardous area distributor.
We look at fit rather than size: whether you have technical people who can support a certified product, whether you can hold spares and handle a service route, and whether your existing lines complement the IS-04Z1 or compete with it. You get the datasheet, the certification schedule and pre-launch pricing so you can build a real plan.
A distribution agreement setting out the territory, the terms, the support commitments both ways and the position on exclusivity. Any minimum commitment is discussed openly at this stage rather than appearing later, and nothing in it will require you to make a certification claim we have not evidenced.
Training, marketing assets, demonstration units and joint work on your first target accounts, so that when the certificates issue and the Q4 2026 launch happens you are already in front of customers with a technical pack rather than starting from a cold list.
The partners this works best for are technical distributors already serving hazardous area customers: gas detection and safety instrumentation houses, industrial communications and radio specialists, PPE and safety equipment suppliers with an engineering arm, and systems integrators delivering connected worker or digital permit programmes who need a device that is allowed past the gate.
It suits companies who can do three specific things. Hold and support stock rather than drop-ship every order. Field a technical conversation about zones, gas groups and temperature classes without escalating every question. And handle a service route, because an intrinsically safe device cannot be repaired or have its battery replaced by a general phone workshop without invalidating its certification, so returns have to be routed properly.
It suits them less if the plan is to list the device on a marketplace and compete on price, or if the expectation is that the manufacturer generates the demand. This is a considered technical sale into a small number of named accounts per market, and it rewards a partner who invests in it.
If that is you, write to info@sams-mobile.com with your territory and your account list, or use the enquiry form on this site. We will answer with the datasheet, the certification schedule and a straight answer about whether your territory is open.
No. IECEx, ATEX and NEC 500 Class I Division 1 certification are all in progress ahead of the Q4 2026 launch, and no certificate has been issued. Any partner appointment made now is made with that fully disclosed, and no partner should represent the device as certified until it is.
Exclusivity is discussed per territory rather than granted by default. It usually follows a commitment on volume, technical resource and marketing investment. What we will always do is tell you at the outset whether a territory already has a partner.
Pre-launch distributor pricing is available on request under a confidentiality arrangement. We do not publish prices, margins, minimum order quantities or lead times on the website, and we will not quote a lead time while certification is running.
You can start building the pipeline immediately with the datasheet and the certification schedule, and place evaluation units for safe-area testing. Supply into classified areas begins once the certificate covering that area is issued, targeted at the Q4 2026 launch.
That changes as appointments are made. Country pages exist for the launch markets, but a page does not mean a partner is in place. Ask about your specific territory and you will get a direct answer.
Yes. National schemes including INMETRO, EAC Ex, CSA, NEPSI, ANZEx, KOSHA and TIIS are planned and sequenced after IECEx, and a partner in a market usually helps steer where that market sits in the queue. Local radio approvals are handled separately from Ex certification.
Service and battery replacement must run through SAMS and authorised channels, because opening an intrinsically safe device or fitting an unapproved part invalidates its certification. The full warranty position and the regional service arrangement are to be confirmed at launch and will be written into the distribution agreement.
We are actively seeking authorised distributors in key markets ahead of our Q4 2026 launch. If you operate in the oil & gas, mining, petrochemical, or industrial safety sectors, we want to hear from you.
Datasheets, the certification schedule and distributor enquiries all reach the same team.
