Facebook's latest attempt to further its presence in the mobile market has apparently been less than successful, according to a rumor that leads back to a "trusted source." Specifically, slow sales of the HTC First — a 4G-capable Android smartphone that came preloaded with Facebook's new Home interface and launched exclusively on AT&T back in April — have led to its discontinuation.
According to the original source of this rumor, sales of the First have been "shockingly bad," which they would have to be for the device to be discontinued only a month and a half after its release. Indeed, AT&T allegedly sold fewer than 15,000 units of the HTC First before recently dropping the device's price from $99 to $0.99.
Remaining unsold units of the First will apparently be returned to HTC.
AT&T, however, has refused to confirm or deny these rumors, telling PCMag, "We do pricing promotions all the time and have made no decisions on future plans." Both HTC and Facebook declined to comment.
The HTC First is actually a solid mid-range device, specs-wise, featuring a 4.3-inch display, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and a dual core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor, making it a decent buy for $99. This begs the question: Is Facebook Home that off-putting to consumers? In short, no.
For one thing, the First's specs don't even touch the Nexus 4, which can be purchased off-contract, directly from Google for $300. For another, the First hasn't been very widely advertised.
That said, considering the cold reception Home received both from tech blogs and smartphone users — who rated Home 2.2 out of five stars on Google Play — it's not too surprising that a phone based around Home would be fairly low. Furthermore, as of the end of April, Facebook Home had been downloaded a mere 500,000 times, even after being made globally available.
Facebook Home is an expansion of the Facebook Android app that provides an entire user experience based around users' Facebook activity.
Edited by
Alisen Downey 
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