3 targets mass market with ‘Facebook phone’ launch
Sometimes it pays to be on this side of the pond, especially if you’re a Facebook addict with a yen for mobile gadgetry and don’t mind switching to 3 if you’re not with them already. The network will be the exclusive carrier for the INQ¹, a Hutchison Whampoa handset launched in the UK only which integrates all the big social networking sites and services – Facebook, Skype, Windows Live Messenger and Last.fm – and also handily makes phone calls.So far, so iPhone/G1/Storm. The killer USP may come in the price – 3 is firmly targeting the budget end of the mass market with a contract pricing plan that begins at £15 per month for unlimited web access and social media app usage, unlimited texts, email and 3-to-3 calls and 75 minutes of calls to other networks. The leap to the next rung up, which offers all that and 200 minutes to other networks, comes at a mere £5 more per month. The pay-as-you-go plans aren’t that much more expensive.
Already dubbed the Facebook phone, the INQ¹ is positioned as a ‘live contact book’, with friends’ online status and Facebook profile pictures displayed against their contact details. Early reviews suggest this phone will go a long way to helping newbs realise the potential of mobile social media networking.
The time’s probably ripe for this launch; 3 says it handles more than a million minutes of Skype-to-Skype calls every day and Mark Zuckerberg reckons more than 15 million Facebook users access the site through their mobile devices (though it’s not clear if this is a UK specific stat).
The phone is named INQ¹ to distinguish it from the manufacturing company INQ Mobile, referred to as INQ. The name’s also good for confusing people who actually do use superscript to indicate the presence of footnotes.
With thanks to TechCrunch UK for this story