Too Geek To Be True

Earlier this week, I got invited on a meet-up by 3-UK.  The purpose of this meet-up was to kick-off a trial of their newest handset, the INQ Mini 3G.
In addition to being lent a review handset, the occasion was also an opportunity to meet with a couple of people whom together represented the team which involves in the INQ Mini Campaign, as well as some fellow geeks :)
Representing 3-UK were Sarah Bolwell (@sarahbolwell – Consumer PR) and David Moore (Product and Services), whereas from INQ Mobile, Martin Monteiro (@martinmonteiro – Product Marketing) was joining us.  And from 3MobileBuzz, which spearheaded this campaign, there came Phil and Cally.

INQ Mini is the second handset of the INQ series that 3 has offered.  The first INQ handset (pictured below), though wouldn’t probably hold itself against the iPhones, Blackberries or the N-Series of the mobile world, had proven to be a very good contender for the middle to low market, and the INQ Mini has promised to bring some improvement to its Big Brother.

One of the unique thing about 3, and one which I think continues to be its strength, is its constant commitment to bring innovation to consumer mobile internet.
It started with the Skypephone!  Now already the second generation, the 3 Skypephone was among the first mobile manufacture/provider which recognized the emerging consumer market for VOIP, especially with the nascent of the consumer friendly Skype. 3’s Skypephone has been providing an integrated Skype experience in a form of a full-fledged mobile handset (not one of those USB attachment phone), for FREE.

Next, 3 realized that many of its customers also using MSN Messenger to chat/communicate with their online friends.  So they integrated MSN Messenger, now MSN Live, as well into their service, and it is also FREE.

With INQ, 3 seems to want to pull the Social Networking market, these are the (young) generation who spend almost all their free time (or sometimes not so free) online, chatting away with their online friends and updating their status via Messaging Services, Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Twitter, etc.
These are all reflected from the design of the handset, the look and feel of the mobile software, right down to the fresh, modern art look of the box in which the handset comes.

I’m going to have the INQ Mini to play around for the next 2 weeks, I will let you know how it goes.  In the meantime, here is what I said to 3 as my first impression.