There’s a lot going on in smartphone news this week. INQ just released two new phones the same week as Verizon’s (News - Alert) iPhone hit store shelves, but these two gadgets are neither about Apple nor Google. The Cloud Touch and the Cloud Q are Facebook (News - Alert)-driven phones that utilize the social networking application as a widget, allowing the user to choose five favorite friends to follow, sync Facebook Events with Google (News - Alert) Calendar, and as a means of a contact database.
While these devices are not official Facebook phones, the Facebook experience has been the inspiration for INQ’s Visual Media Feed. On your home-screen you will now see a visual Facebook feed with the latest updates, pictures, videos and Web pages. The widget also includes one-touch links to Facebook chat, friends, messages, wall postings and notifications. Both phones also come with Spotify which is the default music player.
“We started the ‘Social Mobile’ category 3 years ago with the Skypephone and INQ1, as we believed integrating the internet was the future of mobile. Since then, Facebook has evolved from a social network to become an incredibly powerful global communications platform. Speed and simplicity of access to things you love is our DNA, so our next step is to make it even easier for people to experience the richness of Facebook – all from the homescreen,” said Frank Meehan, INQ’s CEO in a press release. “We also love Spotify, an amazing service that brings the benefits of the ‘cloud’ to consumers, so we made it even easier for Spotify customers to access their music. INQ is all about enhancing the mobile experience, using the power and flexibility of Google’s brilliant Android (News - Alert) platform which ultimately makes all this possible.”
The INQ Cloud Touch is a 3.5” HGVA, Android 2.2 touch device, and the INQ Cloud Q is a 2.6” Android 2.2 touch Qwerty. The INQ Cloud Touch will be available in Q2 2011, and INQ Cloud Q will be available Q3 2011, on at The Carphone Warehouse (News - Alert) and Best Buy for UK markets.
Michelle Amodio is a TMCnet Contributor. She has years of experience in business and marketing. Previously, she worked in broadcast journalism and as an editor abroad in London, England for a privately owned magazine. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by Jennifer Russell