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HTC Giving The Facebook Phone Another Go? Coming 2013 [Rumors]

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While we don’t have exact sales numbers on HTC’s first foray into “the Facebook phone,” we can’t imagine either models sold too well. Here in the US, we saw a version of the HTC Cha-Cha for AT&T redubbed the HTC Status, and in Europe, they had both models along with the qwerty-less HTC Salsa. Each handset came with a dedicated Facebook that gave users easy (almost too easy) access to the included Facebook app.

Now there’s some buzz coming our way from Bloomberg who is reporting that HTC and Facebook have once again joined forces, and will release another Facebook branded handset due out sometime during the middle of next year. This time around, HTC might let Facebook tinker around a little more with the OS instead of making a glorified dedicated app button. We’ll have to wait and see.

I think if HTC targets pre-paid carriers, the Facebook phone could fare a little better this time around. Good thing for HTC’s sake, Facebook has some deep pockets to fund a project like this.

Chris Chavez
I've been obsessed with consumer technology for about as long as I can remember, be it video games, photography, or mobile devices. If you can plug it in, I have to own it. Preparing for the day when Android finally becomes self-aware and I get to welcome our new robot overlords.

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27 Comments

  1. No no no, for the love of god…. nooooooooooooooo!

  2. HTC and Facebook teaming up to ruin the Android experience for a millions of consumers. “If you thought Sense was crap, you ain’t seen nothing yet.” Seriously, manufacturers should be moving toward a pure Google experience, not more horrible skinning.

    1. Seriously…. we consumers have said that we HATE UI overlays. The Vanilla experience is always best. Plus you would have less fragmentation.

    2. I recently went to one of the Galaxy S III launch events and the phone is a thing of beauty and a beast from a hardware standpoint. It is responsive, but much, much slower than my Galaxy Nexus. OEMs have to come up with some way to have value added, such as DRM protecting their proprietary apps and leaving a stock Android experience. I understand why they are apprehensive of simply becoming hardware manufacturers, as it would commoditize their product and simply make it a hardware and price battle. Think of Windows computer manufacturers in the 90’s and how many of them are still around. Keep Android stock, give us your crappy bloat with DRM protection and update your damn devices :-P

  3. NO. Just NO. Let FB die. It’s ASS. It always has been. Google + is so much better. The very idea that I can post something and not worry about if so and so sees it is awesome.

  4. Bloated sense + horrid android facebook devs… This will be good!

  5. ERMAGERRDD!! UH FERRCCEEBERRKK FRRRNNNN!!

  6. Facebook is already so entrenched in our lives, does it really need to be even more a part of our lives?

  7. Hate the thought of the phone but love the blue on it. Looks pretty nice

  8. Guaranteed FAIL. A dedicated FB phone that will track everything about you? record your phone conversations? read your text messages? take snapshots of your screen? take photos every 10 seconds with your camera? Facebook is the new Big Brother.

  9. So they can collect even more information about you, and sell it to Obama.

    1. Did you forget when Obama had a sit down dinner with Zuckerburg? And there was no media allowed to listen to the talks they had? Zuckerburg sold us out. All our data is accessible by the US govt at any time. Don’t believe me? that’s fine. Most people are easily deceived by what they see on TV. For example, the US Govt uses over 80% of TOTAL Internet Bandwidth. And here we thought that consumers use the most amount of bandwidth. What do you think they do with all that bandwidth?

      1. SKY IS FALLING! ALUMINUM FOIL HATS FOR EVERYONE! THEY PUT FLUORIDE IN THE DRINKING WATER?!

        1. HAHA

  10. I think it’s fine if Facebook and HTC want to partner up on a device, but here’s the thing: Before they do, how about Facebook’s mobile app stops sucking so much? Seriously, Facebook is worth billions, and they can’t invest a little more time and money in their mobile app?

    Shout-out to G+: Beautiful mobile app, amazing community.

    1. The reason why the app sucks is to get people to use the desktop version. They can do advertising on a computer without people complaining. Its just to gain $$$. Google+ on the other hand, has other ways to get money and having a better mobile app can attract more people, which can be difficult with a smaller user base

  11. Watch this phone will come with free DATA, you don’t even have to pay for it, as long as you use it for facebook purposes.

  12. Failbook

  13. Imho, that thing is fugly. The only thing I must say about it is, manufacturers, please take a look at how small the bezel is. That is what we want.

  14. @chris Chavez added this one to the spank bank. Justsaiyan.jpg

  15. get use to seeing this screen when you unlock the phone… these morons can’t keep their POS app running to save their lives and now you wanna build a phone around them??!? RUN htc…RUN far away!

    1. AMEN! I can’t tell you how much I hate seeing that!

  16. Like the look of it. Root it Rom it and gtg…

  17. It’s good to see HTC going back to it’s roots of developing niche products at higher margins.

    First Windows phone, first android phone. It’s good they haven’t forgotten where they came from.

  18. Complete waste of time. The Facebook app is crap! Facebook doesn’t even work on my HTC Rezound! Contacts never stay synced! I had to get Friendcaster just to sync my FB contacts! Maybe HTC should partner up with them instead!
    Seriously, this is a bad idea!

    1. damn maybe something is wrong with your device. my HTC Rezound syncs just fine with Facebook and my contacts.

      but I will agree this is a bad idea for HTC. I don’t see the phone selling to anyone outside 13-16 in age really.

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