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Rumors of the next “Facebook phone” are heating up in the form of the HTC Myst (formerly the HTC opera). The device is said to be a three-way collaboration between the Taiwanese company, the social network giant, and AT&T. The partnership has its origins in AT&T’s HTC Status, the US version of the HTC ChaCha. That phone was more or less a standard Android device with a dedicated Facebook button. Could the Myst be even more?
The latest news concerns specs, and it sounds like we’ll get another mid-range device targeted at tweens and the socially obsessed. Hardware is said to include a 1.5GHz dual-core MSM8960 CPU, 4.3-inch 720p display, 1GB RAM, and 5MP camera and 1.6MP front-facing camera. The handset features 16GB of internal storage and no SD card support.
The LTE-enabled handset is built around Android 4.1.2, and at this point it’s impossible to say how much of a Facebook-oriented treatment the OS will get. It’s safe to assume we will get plenty of Facebook-driven content (a full app suite including Messenger and Instagram), but will the device otherwise sport a standard HTC Sense overlay? Or are we looking at an entirely original software layer? Just another Facebook button? How the software side is handled will be the focus for this phone.
There is no solid word on when we can expect to see the phone launch, but the companies behind it should be ramping things up over the next few months. A summer release isn’t out of the question.
[via UnwiredView]
Words cannot explain how big of a failure this will be.
Teens nowadays are usually spoiled and look for something they think is “the best”. Even my little 12 year-old sister’s Galaxy S3 is more high end than that.
Besides, for us geeks, who would want Facebook software on our phone when the app itself is already bad enough?
no kid would be caught dead with that phone. I’m not sure who the market is supposed to be.
Not every parent can afford a Galaxy S3, take it easy
What phone? That picture isn’t the Myst. The Myst is likely to not have a hardware keyboard when you consider a 4.3″ screen.
what’s a MYSTery is who optioned this phone? the old school blackberry/moto q style phones are dead. Yeah I said it.. Moto Q!!!!
We have no knowledge of it being blackberry-eque style though. But I do agree with you that form factor is dead, at least for a while.
With a 4.3 screen that thing is huge, the size of a tablet.
Not sure on the market for such an awkward sized phone.
If they actually used that design we saw in the render awhile back that was the big blue brick with htc and the giant screen and put higher end hardware in it. Then it would sell that phone althogh it was a render was beautiful
stupid idea! Facebook has to end Mark is the fcking Antichrist
I can’t WAIT to get one!!!
These phones always flop. What moron marketers and engineers did they hire fresh out of college for this idea?
They hired people who use facebook. You know that is a disaster waiting to happen.