How do you create a mobile phone? You’re an operator, after all, not a Scandinavian or Korean company that’s been making handsets for years. Australians Frank Meehan, Jeff Taylor and Ken Johnstone managed to convince the global network operator they were working for, Hutchison Whampoa in Hong Kong, to let them build a phone. And INQ (pronounced “Ink”) was born.

Now based in the UK, it’s a separate subsidiary, with Meehan as CEO. Taylor, marketing and strategy director of INQ Mobile, says: “A lot of the DNA of the company comes from the original global handsets team that did all the buying and sourcing of handsets for 3 Group.”