Facebook Cancels HTC First Phone In Europe
HTC First, the Facebook Home flagship, seems to have sunk
The HTC First phone has been cancelled in Europe, following the poor US response to Facebook Home, the social media interface it runs.
Facebook has asked operators in Europe not to go ahead with the European launch planned for this summer, as American users are not interested in Home, which replaces the Android phone’s home screen with a rolling stream of Facebook updates and images. Pre-orders for the phone will be cancelled. While some say it is “delayed indefinitely”, it seems the phone will never be launched outside the US, while Facebook goes back to the drawing board. the streaming social media interface , initially planned for the summer has been put on hold indefinitely, with sources saying it will never be launched outside the US, where it went on sale in April.
Facebook flagship sinks
Facebook Home is the social media giant’s major foray into phones, and the HTC First is its flagship, often referred to as the “Facebook Phone”.
The app was available for download on other phones, but proved unpopular, with commentators criticising Facebook’s “arrogance” in expecting users to ditch their Android home screens.
In the UK, operator EE issued a statement making it clear that Facebook took the decision: “Following customer feedback, Facebook has decided to focus on adding new customisation features to Facebook Home over the coming months. While they are working to make a better Facebook Home experience, they have recommended holding off launching the HTC First in the UK.”
In France, Orange said the same. And in the US, the HTC’First’s future is also in doubt, with BGR reporting that AT&T has cancelled the phone.
Facebook confirmed the First isn’t coming here in a statement: “While we focus on making Home better, we are going to limit supporting new devices and think it makes a lot of sense for EE and Orange to hold off deploying the HTC First in Europe.”
Previous Facebook phone efforts at HTC have come unstuck: 2011’s HTC ChaCha and Salsa sank without trace.
Despite the critical success of the HTC One smartphone, HTC’s profits have fallen, and it has lost a series of top executives in recent weeks.
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