Analysts discuss the viability of INQ Mobile's and HTC's Facebook phones, which seek to improve the Facebook experience for mobile phone users worldwide.
INQ Mobile and HTC made pretty bold bets
at Mobile World Congress last week when they
introduced what has become to be known as Facebook phones, or
handsets that provide super speedy access to the social network.
To be clear, the INQ and HTC handsets
won't have the actual Facebook brand and logo on the device. Rather, Facebook's
presence is situated on the home screens, with the social network's features
and contacts easily available to users.
The INQ Cloud Touch and INQ Cloud Q handsets
run Android 2.2 and provide single sign-on and one-touch
access to Facebook features. The home screen includes users' Facebook News Feed
and links to Chat, Messages, Places and notifications, among other perks.
HTC's ChaCha and Salsa devices
run Android 2.3 and go a step further than INQ on the Facebook
integration front by offering a dedicated Facebook button to give users
one-touch access to their favorite Facebook functions. Among other things,
clicking the button allows users to update their status and upload a photo.
Will consumers buy them because of the clear Facebook styling? It's tough to
say. INQ Mobile CEO Frank Meehan believes
Facebook's 600 million-plus users yearn for these gadgets.
"This audience wants a phone that lives and breathes Facebook, not one
that relegates it to a tiny square in the app menu," Meehan told eWEEK in
a statement. "We identified this shift in behavior years ago and have been
working since then to create devices that use Facebook to drive the
communications."
Forrester Research analyst Charles Golvin, meanwhile, called the HTC
gadgets desirable because they are competitive Android smartphones that do a
better job of integrating Facebook into the overall experience.
"Though it's just a single button, their software design appears to
make the action of that button intuitive, across many different phone
applications," Golvin said, adding that the ChaCha and Salsa provide
"distinction in a sea of faceless Android devices."
Golvin's point is well met. There are well over 100 Android smartphones to
date, with more than 300,000 handsets activated each day in 2011.
INQ may be challenged to move its Cloud devices due to its lack of carrier
support in the United States, though HTC has
reaped the rewards of selling Android handsets such as the Droid Incredible and
Evo 4G in the United States.
However, Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney tempered enthusiasm by noting that HTC's
Facebook key a secondary issue for most buyers.
"If the phone is great from all other aspects and it has a Facebook key,
then it will sell," Dulaney told eWEEK. "I guess it's like a limited
edition of a car. Once you get past the collectors, it's about whether the
machine is a great car."
And Om Malik, absolutely
rebukes the idea of the ChaCha and Salsa as Facebook phones because they lack deep integration with Facebook at the core operating system level.
Even so, both INQ Mobile and HTC expect their
respective Facebook-friendly gadgets to drive sales this year.
INQ's Cloud Touch will be available in April at The Carphone Warehouse
and Best Buy in the U.K.
The INQ Cloud Q will be available in the third quarter from The Carphone
Warehouse and Best Buy in the U.K. INQ is mulling a launch in the United
States but has no firm plans.
The HTC ChaCha and Salsa will be
available to customers across major European and Asian markets during the
second quarter of 2011, with AT&T bringing them to the United
States later in the year.
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