SAN FRANCISCO—Handset manufacturer INQ is following Motorola’s lead and announced yesterday that it will have an Android handset to market sometime in 2010.
Frank Meehan, founder and CEO of INQ, made the announcement only hours after Motorola unveiled its latest Android offering, the Motorola Cliq.
In a Q&A at GigaOM Mobilize ’09, Meehan said that Android was the perfect fit for his company’s future designs. Meehan is one of the architects behind the social mobile INQ handsets that integrate a Skype client.
While he didn’t give many details, Meehan said Android is in its infancy and he’s excited about the possibilities that the open-source platform represents for a small handset OEM like INQ. While Meehan was guarded about a timeline for the new device, he did confirm that it will “definitely be out next year.”
INQ’s handsets are currently available on 3 in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, Italy and Hong Kong. INQ won the GSMA’s Best Mobile Handset Award at the 2009 Global Mobile Awards in Barcelona.
