The first ever Facebook phone, targeted at 18-28 year old social networkers, was unveiled by British company INQ Mobile at Barcelona last week.The phone, which was developed by the London-based mobile company in conjuction with the Facebook team, is set to release two new mobile phone designs to tap into the hugely popular phenomenon, which is particularly popular with the under 30s.
Facebook has 500 million users worldwide, and a new study released last week by ComScore, suggested that Australians spend one in every five minutes of online activity on social networking, with Facebook grabbing the most attention.
INQ’s two models, the INQ Cloud Touch and INQ Cloud Q, will run on Android, and introduce Facebook friendly features which replace traditional appications on mobiles. Rumoured to look like a white iPhone, the phone also has four Facebook buttons – People, Events, Notifications and Places – dominating the home screen.
The phone also has a single sign-in feature allowing users to access all of the Facebook features on their smartphone. Facebook Events, links up with Google’s calendar and replaces the typical calendar found on mobiles and the Places button connects you to the geo-location service, to find the locations of friends.The usual phone contacts list has also been superseded by a Facebook inspired Friend’s List.
Although prices have not been revealed, the Cloud Touch, which is due to go on sale in Europe in April, and the Cloud Q, due later in the year are likely to be priced very reasonably in order to attract teenagers and students. It is not clear if the phone is to be launched in Australia yet.
Meanwhile, HTC also announced it is to bring out two Facebook phones, the Salsa and Cha Cha, this year.
