INQ1, the European unlikely rival to the iPhone

Don’t worry, I can sense your confusion, either there is a serious contender for the phone top spot (so why haven’t you heard of it yet?) or I have gone crazy. Admittedly, I am stepping out of line here, and perhaps I was being a little pretentious (maybe even ostentatious) but I think that this is seriously a good concept and if it takes of it can, and maybe will, be big. So what is it I hear you cry, read on…

The INQ1 Specs

I think it is only fair that I give the INQ1 (pronounced ink-one to those in the know) an overview first, before explaining why this could be big, so here it is. The INQ1 is a new phone set to be released by 3, a mobile phone network running in Hong Kong, Australia, and Europe and although no release date has yet been revealed (neither for Europe or the US) one can’t imagine they will want to miss out on the Christmas market. Essentially, it is a slide phone with a metallic-cum-steel look which although is sleek, is nothing special.

It has a 3.2MP camera, which is by no means poor, it is slightly smaller than the iPhone as well as being lighter, and has all the usual Bluetooth and external storage options that you would expect. So “nothing special” I hear you say, “How can this rival the iPhone?” I think it will do this not because of specifications, but for two crucial reasons that will greatly appeal to the younger audience who are oh-so-important in dictating the mobile phone market.

iPhone killer?

Firstly, it is a lot cheaper than the iPhone (3G), the INQ1 has a price tag of $120. However, that is not as crucial as my other point: this phone is built for Facebook. This social networking site has been massive for a long time, and it has become clear that many youngster use this extensively, as well as many adults. It has become so big that even some university’s are checking prospective students Facebook pages to see what they are like.

3 is banking on people wanting to utilize this even more by buying a phone that is tailored towards making Facebook easy to use. It does this in a multitude of ways like combining your inbox so that it will also show pokes, comments, and messages you receive through your account. Also IM and Facebook alerts will pop up to keep you informed of everything that happens. There are also a whole host of other Internet linked applications that are embedded in this phone, including MSN messenger, Skype and RSS all of which corroborate with your contacts list to show all possible ways of contacting people.

So I think you can see why it is good, but an iPhone rival? I seriously think that if this starts a trend, if it can sufficiently jump onto the social networking band wagon, then it can attract potentially more people than the iPhone. Obviously not businessmen, but the younger generation may well flock to this because of how it will integrate with their online lives so well which could give the iPhone a run for its money. The jury is still out though, and only time will tell, but I do think that could be a serious contender.

Source [Guardian]