INQ
INQ 1

Hutchison Whampoa launched its INQ mobile devices subsidiary, a "virtual" mobile phone manufacturer, in November 2008. The division's first mobile phone was the INQ1 sider phone. The INQ1 was made by original design manufacturer (ODM) Amoi. It was initially available on 3 network in the UK and cost £80 when sold as a prepaid device. The goal of the INQ1 was to deliver a device that offered mobile Internet services to the mass market at an affordable price. Previous devices costing less than €100 had largely focused on talk and text capabilities, whereas the INQ1 had several high-end features. It was a 3G phone that could double as a modem for a PC; it had a 3.2 megapixel camera and, perhaps most significantly used Qualcomm’s BREW operating system and featured integrated access to applications such as Facebook, Skype and Windows Live Messenger. Users also had access to several widgets, such as the weather forecast, which could be displayed on the home screen. RSS feeds could be configured to stream information from websites. These services and capabilities had traditionally only been available on much more expensive smartphones, which accounted for less than 15 percent of all phones sold at the time. A particularly clever element was the way in which INQ dispensed with a user guide. Instead, it included 10 brightly coloured reference cards in the box, with artwork designed by students. These cards provided an overview of how the key features and functions of the device worked. This approach not only gave users attractive cards that could be put into a handbag or wallet, but it was also more likely to encourage people to read about how various services worked compared to the typical black-and-white user guide that was seldom referred to. The focus on usability continued on the device itself. It had an easy-to-read grid menu that was colour-coded so users could work out where they were in the menu by the colour displayed (for example, orange for settings and blue for messages). These colours matched those used on the reference cards.