Facebookook last night launched its Facebook Home application for Android smartphones, which unlike the expected OS, is an add-on to Android handsets which will make the smartphones a lot more Facebook-y!
However, this hasn’t stopped Facebook actually working with HTC to create the first in a line of Facebook Home-sporting handsets, and in this case HTC officially announced the HTC First which will be the first (see what they did there?) “Facebook Phone”.
Peter Chou, HTC’s chief executive officer, revealed the new smartphone at a media event in San Francisco, where the company launched the new handset that will come pre-loaded with the Facebook Home software.
The handset is aimed at the mid-range market at first (possibly to attract the key teenage Facebook demographic), sporting a 4.3-inch 720p display which is powered by a 1GHz dual-core processor running the Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean OS. It’s also got a 5-megapixel rear camera and a 1.6-megapixel front facing camera for Facebook video calls, as well as LTE/4G mobile connectivity and a cool 25GB of Dropbox storage which is free for the first two years.
The HTC First will be available where the Facebook Home app launches on April 12th in the US, and customers will be able to pick it up on the on AT&T network for $99 on contract. It will be available in a multitude of colours including red, baby blue, white and black.
In the UK 4G network EE has also been listed as stocking the HTC First… first in the UK but as far as a launch date goes we simply have “Summer” detailed, with no price information release yet.
You can read more about the Facebook Home app here but it seems Zuckerberg and co. have made a good move in not trying to attack the OS market with another new system. Instead they are looking to hijack the existing Android OS and add some extra functionality to appease social network lovers.