Update: Facebook phone? Been there, done that, and nobody cared
Summary: Facebook is generating buzz with the unveiling of Home, but it seems everyone has forgotten about the Facebook phone nobody wanted.
Facebook has unveiled the new Home environment for Android phones that looks to turn them into Facebook phones. Breaking into the mobile space has long been the dream of Facebook. Though, it's too early to tell if users will race to turn their Android phones into Facebook phones. They didn't flock to a real Facebook phone in the past as we pointed out in this article originally published in 2011.
While some have raised well-placed privacy concerns about having Facebook in your pocket, the fact is this has been done before and nobody cared. Do you remember the HTC Chacha? How about the AT&T branded version of it, the HTC Status? I didn't think so.
This was an unofficial, meaning HTC/AT&T couldn't actually call it a Facebook phone, a handset that had Facebook ingrained all the way down to the hardware layer. You could see the Facebook button right on the front of the phone, that made it a snap, er, push of a button, to share anything around you. Both AT&T and HTC made a big splash about the Status/Chacha, calling it the first Facebook phone on the AT&T network. It was positioned to change our world, and for the better. After all, sharing is good, right?
This was earlier this year [2011], and since then the Facebook phone has made no impact. No. Noise. At. All. It's as if it quietly went into hiding in the back rooms of stores. I'm sure some of them sold to customers, but I certainly haven't seen a single one in the real world.
If Facebook is really developing Buffy, or whatever it will eventually call the real Facebook phone, it is likely to receive the same reception as the "nobody owns one" Chacha. The fact is Facebook is too late to bring such a phone to market successfully, as every single Facebook user already has decent access to the service on their present phone. It doesn't matter what phone they use, Facebook is already front and center for those who consider that important.
Facebook phone? Nobody outside of the Facebook organization cares.
Addendum, April 4 at 10:48am PT: First paragraph added about the new Facebook Home.
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Talkback
RE: Facebook phone? Been there, done that, and nobody cared
RE: Facebook phone? Been there, done that, and nobody cared
I wouldn't be so sure. Lot of people also wrote off iPhone as a been there, done that thing, they had built a phone with Motorola, some Moto iPod phone like thing. One never knows what the phone may turn up like.
RE: Facebook phone? Been there, done that, and nobody cared
The Motorola ROKR
But the problem with the 'Facebook button' is that it is a solution in search of a problem, the fact of the matter is that every mobile platform already has a perfectly acceptable Facebook mobile app, and it is not at all difficult to use.
Precisely!
icons that they use to actually work or make money.
Facebook makes no money for the user. All it is for, is to boost one's ego from time
to time.
When I feel lonely and need to pretend that someone cares about me, then
I post some totally unimportant never read post. Even though I have over 400 friends on FB, I may get one response to a post.
So I would never let Zuckie-Bopper's FB empire wreck my nice Android homepage which is arranged with icons I use. My FB icon is not on my homepage and never will be. In fact I removed FB from my phone to reduce my internet 3G bill as FB posts were eating up my minutes here in Asia.
I think htc and the other oems will care. that is if fb isnt charging them
RE: Facebook phone? Been there, done that, and nobody cared
Cool handle ZombieSteveJobs
And your user name is priceless!
The only problem with FB is that somehow it is so pervasive you have to
create a company FB page.
Hopefully Google + will become more popular and I can shutdown my
FB company pages.
RE: Facebook phone? Been there, done that, and nobody cared
RE: Facebook phone? Been there, done that, and nobody cared
http://90.vc/gvrL
http://90.vc/gvrL
Windows Phone 8 has far better integration than ios
I can pin contacts right to the home screen and see what's new with them, I get their status updates right in their contacts, the People hub shows me Facebook, Twitter, and Skype updates, I can share nearly anything with Facebook and Twitter at the same time (simple to use checkboxes specify where the post goes).
Not sure about Android solutions since I don't own an Android but I own 2 ios devices and they both have horrible, terrible, really lousy Facebook support. I could see someone with an iphone wanting to carry around a dedicated Facebook phone as a companion to their iphone.
Ah, so you're the one
HA HA HA HA
The Troll Mole Toddbottom3 from MicroKlunk. At it again!
So today is "Plug the dead WindoZe virus trap Phone" day for you?
Oh okay. How much does Microsoft pay you to post your MS Fanboy mole statements?
Like who in their right mind would pay for a useless Redmond "Reboot-A-Phone" with a MS DOS 4 bit virus trap file system anyway?
Tell me how slow your MicroKlunk phone runs when you load Norton's Venereal Basic worthless over bloated anti-virus software on it?
I'll just keep using my Linux Android phone and with no FB homepage on it.
facebook phone? why name the phone as this?
Poor design
Yep