Inq Mobile
software companies of the United Kingdom
Inq was a social software and app manufacturer who launched two successful software products and a series of award-winning handsets. Material, Inq's personalised magazine, became the top free news app in the UK App Store and achieved a number 4 position in the US, shortly after launch. SO.HO, a social launcher developed by Inq, was also warmly received with press positioning it as an alternative to Facebook Home.
Prior to focusing on software, Inq released a series of "social mobiles" for which they were awarded "Best Newcomer" and "Best Handset" at the GSMA in 2009.
In January 2014 Inq announced the business was closing down and the apps in market would no longer be updated.
Company Overview
Inq held offices in London and Rome and employed between 11 and 50 staff across the two offices.
The company was founded in 2007 by Ken Johnstone (Inq's current CEO), Frank Meehan and Jeff Taylor. It is a fully owned subsidiary of Hutchison Whampoa and is backed by Li Ka-shing who is Chairman of Hutchison Whampoa and is also an investor in Facebook and Spotify.
Inq Software and Apps
Inq launched two software only products in 2013; Material a discovery app that delivered each of its users a personalised magazine based on their interests and SO.HO, a launcher and app that brought together Facebook, Twitter and Instagram in one place. Shortly after its release, the Material iOS app became a and achieved a number 4 rank in the Free News chart in the US app store.
“Inq Mobile” enters the record as software companies of the United Kingdom. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Mobile, software and companies can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The date and method of observation matter as much as the stated conclusion, especially where classification or consensus has changed. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3788641. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2009, 2014, 2007 and 2013.
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This entry incorporates text from “Inq Mobile” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.