Smart phone, schmart phone. INQ is betting that what really matters to people is a phone’s social media features: Namely, integration with Twitter, Facebook, and other online services that we actually use to stay in toouch with our friends.
They might be right.
INQ’s “Facebook phone,” the INQ1, impressed us by its clever integration with Facebook as well as Skype, Windows Live Messenger and Last.FM. But the phone’s physical presence was gormless and bland, like it had been plucked off the shelf of some Chinese OEM’s Shanghai showroom, which it probably had.
Now INQ is planning a second generation of phones, and it looks like the company got the message that industrial design matters. The upstart handset maker’s two new phones, the candybar INQ Mini and the QWERTY-sporting, BlackBerry-like INQ Chat, sport attractive, sleek hardware that you wouldn’t be embarrassed to be seen with. Black plastic is offset by keys with striking red lettering, the edges are attractively rounded, and the phones both look and feel good in the hand. INQ execs tell us that they’ve even given thought to the weight distribution inside the handsets, so that they are well-balanced in your hand when you’re texting and even “swivel” comfortably around their nav buttons when you whip them out of your pocket.
The new phones also add built-in support for Twitter, so you can both read and post tweets quickly and easily. The company strove to provide the complete Twitter experience, translated onto the tiny screen, even going so far as to display the service’s “fail whale” when Twitter goes offline.
Both are expected to become available in Q4. U.S. users are, for now, out of luck, as no American carrier has agreed to offer these phones yet.
See below for two more photos of these phones, provided by INQ.
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