HTC’s Facebook-centric First deemed ‘pretty much dead’

The Facebook-centric HTC First may be little more than a month old but that hasn’t stopped some analysts from already writing its obituary. Benzinga points us to new research from Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry, who estimates that the HTC First sold less than 10,000 units in its first three days of availability and who says the smartphone is “pretty much dead” despite its short time on the market. Facebook and HTC announced the First in April as a device to showcase Facebook’s new Facebook Home overlay for Android that essentially takes over Android home screens and replaces them with Facebook content.

[More from BGR: This is the back of a $640 phone]

But Chowdhry says that the phone has been a massive dud so far “probably because it does not have a cool factor that many Facebook users go for.” He is much more bullish on Facebook Home as an application, however, because he thinks that “people who live and die on Facebook will probably like it” and will give it a loyal user base that it can use to enhance its presence in the mobile world. AT&T earlier this week slashed the price of the HTC First to just $0.99 with a two-year contract, so it seems that demand for the device is at the very least not as strong as Facebook and HTC had hoped.

This article was originally published on BGR.com