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Since its road to Damascus conversion to the open internet model two years ago, Hutchison's 3 unit has proved a trailblazer for many key trends in this market. The latest is the move towards handsets that are heavily optimized for, and branded with, a specific popular web service - aiming to boost mobile internet usage below the smartphone category by making the devices affordable and the application easy to use.

3 has already launched a Skype phone for its own networks and last week followed up with a YouTube handset in its Italian unit. But its ambitions go beyond its own cellcos, and Hutchison hopes to steal a march on larger phonemakers in a sector that should prove increasingly important as mobile web usage spreads further into the population, and affordability becomes crucial. Its recently announced INQ subsidiary, which will design the one-touch phones for various key apps, is looking to sell to other operators, especially in emerging markets, and ones where Hutchison subsidiaries do not run networks.

The first product that is explicitly emerging from INQ, and geared to the open market - rather than confined to the 3 brand - is a Facebook phone, although this will actually be launched first by 3 UK and Australia. While several manufacturers are working on phones optimized for the social networking phenomenon - Motorola's Android development, for instance - this will be aimed at the mass market.

INQ Mobile says its first handset will make Facebook (and other apps) as easy to use as SMS, attracting new mobile web users. The units will be launched in the initial 3 territories in time for the holiday season and will cost about $200 to operators - 2-3 times less than a smartphone. This should result in subsidized prices to end users of $50 or free depending on contract. Other apps to be featured on the home screen of the INQ unit, which will be officially launched next week, will include instant messaging, Skype and simple email.

Facebook said it had worked closely with INQ to integrate its app with the handset to a far deeper degree than on previous handsets such as RIM BlackBerry. It says its service is particularly suited to cellphones as it can be used in the same way as SMS - client-based and always on in the background, so it provides constant and instant updates.

Frank Meehan, head of INQ, said in an interview with Unstrung that it was a good time to enter this market. "This is what Hutchison as a conglomerate does. It goes into markets that look saturated and in trouble." The company plans to launch up to five more devices next year and hopes to get operators other than 3 to sell them. The Skypephone is so far only available from 3, which has sold 300,000 of them.

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