Articles tagged with: 3

After the success of the well received Skype Phone and its successor, 3's realised it's on to a good thing and brought out another low-priced yet well-focussed mobile. It is, of course, the long rumoured INQ1 that takes to Facebook like a bored office worker.

It's not quite an own-brand handset but it is made by the newly formed INQ - a firm backed by 3's owner, Hutchison Whampoa, so it's about as close to in-house as you can get. Because of that we can expect close integration with 3's services, including Last.fm, Windows Live Messenger the free Skype calling features borrowed from the Skype phone.

Following on from Orange and T-Mobile, Vodafone has now launched its own version of the RIM BlackBerry Bold. As on Orange and T-Mobile, it's available for free - as long as you don't mind signing up for a 24 month contract (ouch!) at £35 a month.

Still, that's £10 a month cheaper than free BlackBerry Bolds available on 18 month deals with the other two networks.

It just leaves O2 and 3 as the only operators not to have launched RIM's shiniest new smartphone. 3 said it'll have it from November, and O2 is no doubt busy crippling optimising it with its own software for launch sometime soon.

[Vodafone]

So, 3 was a little hasty with its N96 prediction. Nokia has just announced that the long-awaited N95 successor will be arriving on 1st October.

As well as 3, it'll be available on T-Mobile, Orange and Vodafone and at Carphone Warehouse and Phones4U.

If October is too long to wait then you can always try gettnig your paws on one early with Nokia's multimedia-heavy online competition to win one of 96 handsets.

[Nokia]

The original Skypephone caused quite a stir when it launched on 3 last year with its free Skype to Skype calls and tiny £50 PAYG price.

Now 3 is back with a successor, the Skypephone S2. The newly printed spec list shows it has a 2.2in QVGA screen, 3.2MP camera, 50MB on-board memory expandable up to 4GB via microSD and will measure just 14mm thick.

The big draw, though, is that it will also get HSDPA and will come with modem drivers to use as a 3 mobile broadband dongle.

It'll be on sale from 18th August for the slightly higher price of £69.99 - or 'under £70' as 3 puts it.

[Pocket Lint]

It seems HSDPA dongles are selling like hot cakes at the moment. Phones 4U is reporting that its doubled its sales targets in some stores - making up for a falling demand for mobile contracts. Meanwhile some Vodafone stores are reporting fifty sales a month on mobile broadband deals.

Sales there have been boosted by the introduction of Vodafone's £15/month for 3GB offer in February. Not to be outdone, rival 3 now says mobile broadband sales account for more than one in five of its new contract customers. It's now offering 50% off its £10/month for 1GB tariff to existing contract customers.

In total, dongle sales hit a staggering 18,000 per week last month - that's a four-fold increase in just six months. Could it be the networks have finally found 3G's 'killer app'?

[Mobile]

UK Mobile phone operator 3 has teamed up with Skype to offer free VoIP calls over its 3G network using its new 3 Skypephone handset.

Skype-to-Skype calls are free with the 3 Skyphone as long as the account is in credit, and the handset is is available free on 3's pay monthly tariffs, or £49.99 with PAYG. The handset can also be used for Skype instant messages, as well as normal mobile calls.

The 3 Skypephone operates on the 3G network and has , a 2-megapixel camera, MP3 player and web browser. It's available from 2 November in 3 stores across the UK, and from Skype and 3's websites.

[3]