Affordable Internet
Mobile phone operator 3 has announced the UK availability of the latest INQ handset - the INQ Chat 3G - and its price looks set to put some serious pressure on the rest of the mobile phone market.
The INQ Chat 3G is INQ's first QWERTY handset and is positioned to provide a low cost of entry to mobile Internet, with things like Twitter, Facebook, Skype and push Gmail among the preinstalled applications.
3 is offering the INQ Chat 3G for £99.99 on a PAYG basis or on a contact of £15 per month for 18 months. Given the kind of scary money you have to shell out for an iPhone, even at Tesco, this will appeal to a lot of younger users, or even just people who would rather not remortgage their house just to get a phone.
INQ is a UK based handset maker specialising in what it calls ‘social mobiles', which was only created a year or so ago and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hutchison Whampoa. It announced its first QWERTY handset last August, but it has only just become available to buy, exclusively, through 3, which is also owned by Hutchison Whampoa. So you could say INQ is 3's own handset maker.
INQ CEO Frank Meehan: "We've looked at what a lot of consumers want and haven't been getting so far from mobile manufacturers - a well priced device built around the internet that does more than voice-and-text," said INQ CEO Frank Meehan.
"The internet is not an after-thought for us. We started off with the internet in our DNA when we set the company up a year ago. We have developed partnerships with the big internet brands and are delighted with how the INQ Chat 3G delivers the services consumers tell us they care about."
