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Tag: facebook-phone

  • "Facebook phone": HTC First to arrive with Facebook Home

    Facebook made another big announcement, this time about Facebook Home, an Android launcher that will be pre-loaded on HTC First. Although Facebook did not create its own phone, it managed to grab our attention with something between an operating system and an application that manages to turn an Android phone into a Facebook phone.

    According to Mark Zuckerberg,

    “We’re not building a phone; and we’re not building an operating system, but we are building something that’s a whole lot deeper than an app.”

    HTC First will be the first Android phone that will have Facebook Home pre-installed and it is expected on April 12th by AT&T, at the price of $99.99. It is described by Peter Chou of HTC as the "ultimate social phone" and if you are a Facebook fan you won't be disappointed. It will feature LTE connectivity, it will have a ualcomm dual-core Snapdragon 400 processor, a 4.3-inch display and it will run on Android Jelly Bean 4.1. What's more, it will be available in 4 colors, in black, white, red and light blue.

    Facebook Home will be a completely new experience, allowing you to connect with your friends faster than ever. If you also love Instagram, except for Facebook, you need to know that HTC First will be the first phone that will have Instagram pre-loaded at the device.

    As it seems, Facebook is targetinh a young mobile audience, trying to increase its audience, but also its revenue from the mobile market. HTC and At&T will also benefir from such a big collaboration with Facebook, while Android must be happy leaving iOS behind on such a social innovation.

    Whether you'd be interested in buying such a phone or not, HTC First was indeed the first Facebook phone and it cannot be ignored. At least for the time being. 

  • Facebook phone: Ovum comments ahead of Facebook's announcement

    Ahead of Facebook’s announcement today, Adam Leach, principal device analyst at Ovum provides his perspective on how Facebook should move forward.

    Adam Leach, principal device analyst, Ovum:

    “Today Facebook will announce its ‘new home on Android’. There has been much speculation about what this will be, ranging from introducing a more deeply integrated Facebook app for Android all the way to launching its own “Facebook” phone.

    “But why is Facebook doing anything at all? The company wants to increase its engagement with its users and in particular its users accessing the service over mobile. To achieve this Facebook needs a mechanism to deliver its own services to a portfolio of devices. If this can be achieved with an Android Facebook skin or a co-branded phone then this will be better for Facebook as it avoids upsetting its current phone and platform partners and removes the immediate need to launch its own branded devices.

    “Whether Facebook needs to launches its own-branded devices depends on how ambitious Facebook is in moving into new consumer services which it currently does not provide. Facebook currently relies on the good will of its partners to carry the Facebook service. If it intends to move further into delivering digital services and go head to head with its consumer tech rivals such as Google, Microsoft and Amazon. This will bring Facebook into conflict with its current partners and will require the company to have more control over the platform and the devices it delivers the experience to.”

    Image: Michal Bonikowski