Facebook Phone Will Cost You 99 Cents One Month after Its Debut

What is the first thing that would come into your mind when you see that AT&T has dropped the price of one of its phones from $99 to 99 cents? What would you think if this took place 30 days after its debut? You can say it, it’s OK – you would think the phone is a flop!

That is exactly what happened to the HTC First, also known as the Facebook Phone. One month ago you could get the HTC First for $99.99 with a two year contract from AT&T. They had an exclusive agreement to sell the Facebook Phone. Now you can get the same phone for 99 cents.

If you look on the AT&T site, you will see that the HTC First has a selling price of $350.99. You will immediately notice that AT&T will subtract $350.00 from the price giving you a 99.72 percent discount with a total cost to you of 99 cents.

There are two ways to look at this. Phone pricing is sometimes impossible to understand. It can be pretty odd to say the least. The carrier sees two forms of revenue. There is, of course, the cost of the phone, but there is also the two year contract. Combining these two factors gives the carrier its revenue.

Sometimes the carrier will give you a great discount so that more people will buy the phone, still giving them the monthly income from the contract. iPhone users get some great deals, but then they are heavy data users so the carrier still earns a lot.

Sometimes however, the price of the phone is lowered because it is just not selling and no one is interested in it. You would think that people who buy the Facebook Phone would in turn be on Facebook all of the time. That means that the data charges should be gigantic and AT&T would be cashing in.

However, I find it incredible to believe that after only one month, that so much Facebook data use is taking place that AT&T is comfortable lowering the price so much. It is more likely the phone has not and most likely will not find a fan base.

Facebook Home, the Android skin that promised it would put people first, overpowers the user. Instead of making things easier, which face it, everyone wants, it overshadows other features. It is not easy to move around and get to the other apps on the phone.

It is possible to turn off Facebook Home. This would make the HTC First a regular Android smartphone. But then why would you buy a Facebook Phone only to turn off the “Facebook” part of it? CNET feels that possibly HTC’s B team worked on the phone. If you compare the HTC First with the also newly released HTC One, you will notice a remarkable difference.

You will have to make your own decision as to whether this was a smart marketing move on AT&T’s part, or if the world just doesn’t need a Facebook Phone. When you think about it, Facebook is accessible from any phone. The HTC First focuses on Facebook Home, but you can download Facebook Home on other phones, so why would you need one specifically designed to run it as an OS?