Handset manufacturers and wireless operators are striving to enter the mass market of social-networking sites, by making special cellular phones with social-networking software and have features of smart phones but at are sold lower prices.
The reason is that social-networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace are popular and have been often accessed through sophisticated cellular phones like the iPhone and the BlackBerry. Unluckily, basic cellular phones are mostly prone to have awkwardly-designed Web browsers which are not capable to support fancy software.
So today wireless operators like AT&T Inc and Sprint Nextel Corp are struggling to improve access to the services by upgrading browsers on regular cellular phones and integrating Web-based applications made by companies such as Intercasting Corp, whose Anthem service lets users monitor and update several networking and messaging services at once. At the same time, Mobile email provider Good Technology Inc said it was acquiring Intercasting at an undisclosed price.
ComScore M:Metrics Inc said, about 15% of the 25 million US smart-phone users access social-networking Web sites almost every day, compared with about 3.6% of users of more basic feature phones.
Many smart-phone users download slick software that make it simple to upload Facebook photos or send updates by Twitter, the microblogging service. Lower-end phones don’t have the memory or processing power to run such software.
Developing new phones that can be priced for the mass market but include features of smart phones isn’t easy. Hutchison Whampoa’s INQ Mobile device comes loaded with Facebook software that ties into users’ address books, but to keep the cost down it lacks smart-phone features like a full keyboard and music player.
INQ said it has sold 700,000 devices since November 2007, including the social-networking phone and a separate phone geared to the Internet-calling service Skype. Hutchison Whampoa’s 3 UK offers the INQ phone for $110 on a pay-as-you-go basis, compared with the US$545 price tag of the iPhone through rival carrier O2.
Read also
[...] MicroSD expansion slot, while the features include TV out, WiFi, on-screen QWERTY keyboard, A-GPS dual-band HSPA. More about Peress release and new Satio mobile phone [...]
where can I buy spares for the INQ 1 mobile phone as the top slider is damaged. Thanking you for your time.