HTC are at it again when it comes to the Facebook phone, it would seem. Rumors have surfaced indicating that a new smartphone to come from HTC, codenamed Myst, will come with the dedicated button for Facebook. The release of the previous Facebook phones, the HTC ChaCha (or in the US the Status) and the Salsa, didn’t see people fighting each other to get their hands on a phone that had a dedicated button for Facebook (as if you couldn’t wait to find the shortcut on the home screen) and a Blackberry-like design with a physical keyboard, a form-factor that has become something people don’t want anymore. Most people I asked that had foolishly bought a ChaCha did so because it was offered by carriers at a bargain price, and not because of the Facebook branding.
Facebook has of course, taken the world by storm, having more than 1 billion accounts (accounts and not users, because we all know people don’t bother closing their old accounts when moving to another e-mail), allowing me to have a family reunion on Facebook, which helps me keep in touch with relatives I try not to talk to.
Alas, HTC seem to think that it’s time for another “social” phone with the blue button on it, but this time they will go with a touchscreen and not a physical keyboard. The phone is said to have mid-range specs, which could look a lot like:
- 4.3 inch with 720 x 1280 resolution display 342ppi
- Dual-core at 1,5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Plus MSM8960
- 1 GB RAM
- Adreno 225 graphics processor
- 5 Megapixel rear-facing camera and 1.6 front-facing camera
- 4G LTE enabled
- 16GB with no microSD slot
- Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean
The HTC Myst, or HTC Opera as it was referred to until recently, does have a suitable hardware for its market sector to be considered as worthwhile to people not looking to spend a boat-load of money on a phone.
I don’t think there are many people out there that would think a Facebook button to be the major selling point of such a phone. And also, I wonder if others will try their luck with this gimmick. Will we see a 4chan Tablet? How about a WhatsApp laptop with dedicated buttons for each smiley.