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Facebook Home, while initially looking very promising, might be Mark Zuckerberg and Co’s greatest failure yet. Look nowhere else than the app’s 2 and 1/2-star Play Store rating to see that not everyone has taken to the homescreen replacement. Turns out there just wasn’t too many people excited at the idea of having Some E Cards and countless memes posted directly to their phone and/or lock screen.
Once the hippest place to be online, it seems Facebook is just a mass exodus away from drifting down the same road as Myspace. The general disinterest in Facebook Home could be the early warning signs. Look to none other than the HTC First, a stock Android device that comes with the added “benefit” of having Facebook Home pre-installed. Its recent indefinite “delay” overseas let us know that, not only is HTC aware of weak demand for the device, but that Facebook might know as well.
Jumping onto the Facebook Mobile page, you’ll find all kinds of useful tricks on getting the most enjoyment out of the HTC First — including Facebook letting potential HTC First buyers know that Facebook Home can be turned off. Almost as if they suspect this could be the reason people aren’t buying the device. Ouch.
Whether or not this was Facebook simply addressing a commonly asked question about the device, or if they’re about ready to throw in the towel with Home, at the very least it seems someone’s listening. If only Facebook had a little more time in the oven and developers could have, at the very least, included functionality many of us have grown accustomed to since Android 1.5 (like folders and widgets), it may have done a little better for itself. Aside from being Facebook (can’t really change that part now, can they?), what badly needed features would Home have to incorporate before you’d consider installing?
Pretty funny that Facebook has to advertise you can DISABLE Facebook in hopes to sell a FACEBOOK phone. LOL!!!!
It’s tanked horribly, so it’s either this or bury them ask in the desert.
I vote bury, anyone else?
Bury
Third
People use and like Facebook but they do not want it taking over their phones.
I don’t use or like Facebook.
Neither do I, just speaking in general terms.
I don’t think Facebook is necessarily imminently going the way of Myspace. I just think Facebook Home sucks. You don’t put out a quality app and this is what happens. Plus, Androiders don’t take kindly to passive takeovers especially by arch rivals lol.
But there is a migration of people quitting facebook for one reason or another — and a lot of young people not going facebook to begin with.
If only facebook hadn’t spammed up to death with “click me” troll ads and email notifications about friending our fiance’s ex’es new girlfriend, they might have lasted a lot longer.
Didn’t Zuckerberg say his users were fucking stupid? Well, if that’s the user base he saw, then that’s the user base he deserves.
And I don’t hold out much hope for google getting it a whole lot better. Google has blind spots as big as pseudonymous, ad hoc-less planets plaguing them.
I think there’s a lot of people who say they’re leaving FB, how many really do is a different story. They give stats of those leaving but not those who re-join under a different profile. Yes, I have FB on my phone, but just use the app, and shut down all of its notifications.
likewise.
Anecdotes and reasons and even statistics back up the exodus from facebook, but I’m not interested in pursuing that point.
As to the notifications, me getting facebook spam is just an inconvenience. I generally don’t read them, but the few times I have, I’ve been turned off.
My friends are being suggested as potential friends to other friend’s friends. I am facebook friends with two former girlfriends. There is no hanky-panky, they even live in different countries, and I feel fortunate to have good relationships with my exes. However, I don’t want facebook recommending to them that they friend my wife.
Ditto for my uptight boss and my party-hardy beach friends.
My policeman friend and my smoking friends.
Of course I don’t want facebook meddling there.
Those friend suggestions are a huge and everpresent risk to users, and it pisses people off. You can only get out of it by quitting facebook.
The funny thing is that the HTC First probably would have been a successful device if it wasn’t branded as a Facebook phone.
I knew this phone would fail. If someone gave me one for free I’d do my best to sell it for $10 somewhere to get rid of it. But then again I’m the type of guy who will go a couple of months without a phone rather than buy one that’s not the one I think will be the best. A phone is something you use every single day and is nearly always on your person, so a mid-range phone that’s main feature is a social networking site I have intentionally used less and less is a complete and utter turn-off for me.
“rather than buy one that’s not the one I think will be the best.” Along the same train of thought, I’ve always wondered if the people who buy the S4’s and HTC One’s and such purely for “the best” specs/features are genuinely happy with their phone of choice.
I installed Home and only kept it for 18 hours. Facebook is a nice stand alone app but it shouldn’t take over phones. It’s a social network not a carrier or manufacture.
Htc got it right with blink feed. I installed Facebook home and kept it for 20 minutes. I do like blink feed however.
The sad part is that this is one of the best mid range phones available today. The price is low and when you disable FB home its stock Android like a Nexus Device. No HTC Sense or skins…
why all the discontent for fb? if your a young adult n dont have facebook its either your a social weirdo or very private person…either way you suck…fb is what it is i dont love facebook but i dont hate it and i find msyelf on it countless times aday so whats the big deal of them trying something like this…i thought it was a nifty looking phone and not a bad mid ranged device at all…they neglected a lot of key android features which is why its failing but for you to just like be happy it is failing is just idiot…and your a troll
I agree, I go one Facebook, but wouldn’t want a FB themed phone. The price the First was selling for on contract and getting that Home overlay off makes it a good phone. Change the marketing and use it as an option on start up and educate those buying that you can use it as a plain low to mid level device.
To everyone else, haters must hate.
when he sells out. it will become a myspace.
and on another note. i stopped using facebook when my mom and grandma got one. its no longer hip. cool. fun. whatever. sure staying connected is great. it doesnt work out on so many levels. younger generation is looking for something New something hip. vine showed promies but eh. twitter is great because its simple. we’ll have to see how this all plays out.
Facebook Home for iPhone launches on App Store today
https://itunes.apple.com/app/id650667424