Facebook First

The final nail in the coffin of the Facebook phone seems to have been hammered into place as AT&T has sold the last of it’s HTC First handsets and has no plans to purchase any more, reports CNET.

AT&T had earlier denied that any plans had been made to discontinue the handset, but there had seemed little doubt about the handset’s future after the carrier dropped the price from $99 to 99 cents. Even Facebook itself went as far as telling users that the  front-end could be switched off …
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HTC’s profits dropped 98% year-on-year, reports Bloomberg, with first-quarter results of just $2.8 million. HTC had been planning to launch the HTC One last month, but shortage of camera components forced a delay, with the handset now expected to launch later this month.

The choice of HTC for the first ‘Facebook phone’ and anticipated profits from the delayed HTC One may explain the relatively small hit to the company’s share price.