HTC's Facebook Phone Is Clearly A Flop
Steve Kovach/Business Insider AT&T and HTC dropped the price of the First, a new Android phone that runs Facebook Home, to $0.99 with a two-year contract today.
The phone hasn't even been out a month. It originally sold for $99 with a two-year contract. That's not a good sign.
The price drop also backs up reports from analysts that the phone hasn't been selling very well. One analyst reported that he called an AT&T store whose employees claimed they hadn't sold any HTC First phones.
Facebook is also heavily promoting the HTC First and Facebook home in a series of expensive ads that have run during major sporting events like the NCAA Final Four.
Facebook Home is an Android app from Facebook that replaces your home screen with photos and status updates from your Facebook friends. The idea is to put your social connections first on your phone, leaving apps, games, etc. as secondary tasks.
Home only works on a handful of Android devices right now, and HTC is the only manufacturer to make a phone that runs the app right out of the box.