Horn please! INQ has arrived in one of the biggest and most exciting mobile markets in the world: INDIA! Both the INQ Mini 3G and Chat 3G are now on sale across the country.

The numbers of Indians signing up to Facebook and Twitter has been incredible over the last 12 months, with Facebook now the most visited social networking site in India. So we’re really excited about reaching the millions of people who love communicating via social networks but have so far had to connect via a PC.

Today in New Delhi, CEO Frank Meehan presented INQ to the Indian media. The event organised in collaboration with Aircel, India’s most progressive network operator, and the network the INQ phones will be available on.

We’ve specially customised our phones for India with two important additions: the introduction of CricInfo as one of the widgets to satisfy the millions of cricket-obsessed Indians; and Orkut has also been added to make the INQ handsets the primary social tool for those in India.

There’s going to be a lot of exciting news from INQ in India. To be the first in the know, check out our Twitter page for the latest on what we’re up to.

INQ are nursing hangovers today after throwing the party at the big international industry awards event in Barcelona last night.

It started off quite politely, with Stephen Fry, the host for our bash, greeting Duran Duran with a cry of “my darlings” and throwing his arm around the band which has sold more than 100 million records.

The hair was as spectacular as ever, the jeans looked a little uncomfortable. Proving wild boys never lose it, Duran Duran performed like the stars they are.

They started with a bang. View to a Kill set the tone for a crowd singing along and jumping around to songs like The Reflex, Wild Boys and a finale of Rio which saw an ever-growing group of women (and one enthusiastic man) join the band on stage.

The band were spotted at the INQ after party at the W Hotel. Team INQ staggered out in the wee small hours. Some of us are still unaccounted for….

For all updates and photos live from Barcelona, follow us on Twitter and Facebook

INQ’s expansion plans have led to the opening of new offices in Beijing, Singapore and Silicon Valley in California. Yesterday we announced senior appointments including that of Kinson Loo, who joins as INQ president for Greater China.

Kinson joins from Sony Ericsson where he was Corporate Vice President and Head of Region in China. He will be based in the Beijing office to spearhead INQ into China and the far east. “Being part of INQ is being part of one of those very few opportunities to join a new company that is leading a reshaping of an industry, and China will clearly be at the forefront of that change in the next decade,” Kinson said.

CEO Frank Meehan welcomed Kinson and said “Kinson will be building a world class team in China to support our business there and in the rest of the world.”

The other key acquisition is Jim Hudak who becomes General Manager and Vice President of Americas. Jim joins from social mobile internet company iSkoot where he was Head of Global Business Development.

Frank Meehan said: “We are gearing up for an exciting 2010. We laid some amazing building blocks during our first year in business, and we are ready to grow this year. More high calibre people will join the business over the coming months as we continue to pursue our mission to reinvigorate the mobile market with amazing communications and internet devices available to more people.”

With pretty much all of the UK under a cold spell these days, Twitter’s trending topics have frequently been occupied by the hashtag #uksnow. Now, we’re not weather forecasters, but the interaction and fascination of #uksnow grabbed our attention, like it did all over the Twitter network.

The idea was to send a tweet using the hashtag #uksnow, followed by your postcode and a rating out of 10 of the snow in your area. It enabled anyone on Twitter to be able to get real time, genuine updates on snow in a specified area.

We asked Twitter users to send us some Twitpics of the snow in their area by mentioning @INQMobile. The INQ Chat 3G makes it simple and easy to upload pictures and update Twitter straight from the phone.

We’ve taken a small selection and posted them here. Thanks to everyone who mentioned us in their Tweets and @Relentl3ss @martincouzins @iamkreative for the images below! You can follow us on Twitter by clicking here.

Racoon not fond of #uksnow

Ice Hockey Snowman

Building an Igloo

Tooco is all about the odd…
The Argentinean illustrator’s name is three vowels and two consonants chosen at random. His work is just as off the wall, a mix of everything from robots to abstract patterns.

Tooco started his career with architect training, but he left as he found it creatively limiting: “short was the ride between beams and scaffolding.” After experimenting with a few things, he landed up in illustration, where he taught himself everything he needed to know.

Buildings in his blood and randomness on his mind
A man who looks and touches things in a different way, Tooco is all about fun. He believes “that what matters most is to do what we really know we like, deep inside.”

He now teaches as part of a design professorship in Buenos Aires and works on illustrations in his studio:

Discover more:

Tooco’s website showcasing his latest work.

Collection of his published and exhibited work (including on teapots!) on Flickr.

His design professorship at the University of Buenos Aires.

It’s been just over a month since our first ‘Things We’re Tweeting About’ feature and a lot has been happening at INQ. We’ve been very busy with the launch of the INQ Chat 3G, but there’s always a moment to send a tweet. Here’s a selection of our favorites.

Youtube

440 hours to produce 84 seconds of film. To mark the tenth anniversary of The Matrix - here’s the lego version

World’s luckiest guy. We had to watch this again in slow-mo!

INQ founder Frank Meehan discussing Social Mobile

Social Snippets

Flirting via Twitter? Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher give it a try for the world to see.

Plants happen to have a social life too. You learn something new everyday huh?

This was a tweeting revelation! The cunning fox on the London Underground!

Italian cover of Vogue with a slight hint of Twitter about it

Man killed off on Facebook - a prank taken too far?

Cool and Random

How a web design goes straight to hell.

Skype’s phone box experiment - a few of us excitedly called up but sadly didn’t get through!

A gorilla made out of coat hangers!?

What’s being promised now for the future? We’ve already been let down without getting the flying car or undersea colonies!

WISHING YOU ALL A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!

FROM INQ MOBILE

The INQ Chat 3G has sailed into Singapore. It is now available for sale on the SingTel network. The Chat 3G has now been released in six countries with more to follow soon.

SingTel customers can enjoy free six months subscription on SingTel’s IM on Mobile service. The award winning AMPed music service, which won the award of ‘Best Mobile Music Service’ at the GSMA’s Asia Mobile Awards 2009 is also free with selected mobile plans.

The Chat 3G has been checked out by some Singapore bloggers already, with the first photo review here. The handset arrives in perfect time for Christmas!

On Saturday, INQ opened a brand new kiosk store at Westfield, in West London. Westfield is London’s largest shopping centre and is equivalent in size to 30 football pitches!

Pop over to our store for INQ accessories and handsets, including the latest INQ Chat 3G. You can also try out our handsets with live demo models. With a very busy shopping period approaching, our helpful staff can assist you with all the information you need. For help in knowing how to get there, just click here.

You can also view photos of the kiosk on Facebook, or upload your own on the INQ Mobile Facebook page.

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