AllThingsD » HTC

Nokia Adds New Suits in Patent Spat With HTC

Ina Fried — Fri, 24 May 2013 04:23:24 +0000

Nokia on Thursday said it had filed additional cases in its patent dispute with Taiwanese phone maker HTC.

The new actions, which include a second complaint to the U.S. International Trade Commission and a federal suit in Southern California, come on top of existing legal actions that date back to last year.

“We began actions against HTC in 2012 to end the unauthorized use of our proprietary innovations and technologies,” Nokia said. “Since then, despite the German courts confirming infringements of Nokia patents in HTC products, HTC has shown no intention to end its practices; instead it has tried to shift responsibility to its suppliers. We have therefore taken these further steps to hold HTC accountable for its actions.”

An HTC representative was not immediately available for comment.

Overall, Nokia has asserted 50 patents in its various complaints around the world, including nine that were added through the new actions.

Nokia’s litigation with HTC is just one of many patent disputes in the mobile world, a legal landscape that includes battles between Samsung and Apple, and between Microsoft and Google’s Motorola unit.

There have been some settlements in the industry of late, including a deal between HTC and Apple that was announced in November, and a number of licensing deals between Microsoft and various Android sellers.

Update: HTC said it will take a look at the latest legal papers.

“Upon receiving the official document, HTC is to consider all legal options to protect our rights,” the company said in a statement.

HTC First's Trip to Europe on Hold as Facebook Works to Improve Its Home

Ina Fried — Thu, 23 May 2013 18:26:57 +0000

The plan was for the HTC First to launch at AT&T, then also quickly go on sale in France and the United Kingdom.

But that plan is now on hold.

“While Facebook works to create a better Facebook Home experience, they have recommended that Orange in France and EE in the U.K. hold off on launching the HTC First at this time,” a France Telecom-Orange representative told AllThingsD.

Facebook is saying that it wants to work on retooling Home before it renews its effort to get the software preloaded on new devices. “As a result of customer feedback, Facebook has decided to focus on adding customization features to Facebook Home, and will limit support for new devices at this time,” Orange said.

At the launch of Facebook Home, the social network talked about a program to get more phone makers to preload the software. It showed a slide listing other hardware partners, including Samsung, ZTE, Lenovo, Sony, Alcatel One Touch and Huawei, in addition to launch partner HTC.

Neither AT&T nor HTC has commented directly on sales of the HTC First, though the carrier has dropped the price to 99 cents with a contract, down from the initial $99 sticker price.

Whether the HTC First will ever see the light of day in Europe remains unclear, though Orange said it still wants to work closely with the social network.

“Orange remains committed to bringing our customers the newest and best mobile experiences, and we will continue to build on our strong relationship with Facebook to provide these new experiences in the future,” the carrier said.

Chief Product Officer Kouji Kodera Among Several Exits at Troubled Phone Maker HTC

Ina Fried — Wed, 22 May 2013 05:28:25 +0000

Already facing big challenges on the sales side, Taiwanese phone maker HTC has been hit with a wave of staff departures.

Chief among the exits is Chief Product Officer Kouji Kodera, with several others from the marketing and communications ranks also having recently left, including Eric Lin, who is now working for Microsoft’s Skype unit, and communications chief Jason Gordon, who left on Friday.

Kodera, a former head of products for Sony Ericsson, joined HTC in 2010.

“Kouji Kodera has left HTC to pursue other interests,” HTC said in a statement. “We appreciate his contributions and wish him all the best. Scott Croyle will take over his duties.”

Kodera declined to comment, as did Gordon.

Once a rapidly rising star in the phone world, HTC is struggling to reverse a steep sales slide. The company has pinned much of its hope on the HTC One. Though well regarded, the device finds itself competing not only against products from Samsung and Apple — but also the giant marketing budgets that accompany those devices.

HTC had hoped to also get a boost by being first with a device supporting Facebook’s Home software, but the HTC First has not fared well at AT&T, and it’s unclear whether a price cut has helped move the needle. Both HTC and AT&T have declined to comment on sales.

The staff departures were first reported earlier Tuesday by The Verge.

Though hardly alone in scaling back its presence at CTIA, HTC was much less visible at the show than in past years. The company opted to skip the show floor entirely, and instead had a small booth at the MobileFocus press event on Tuesday night, where it showed the HTC One and the intricate manufacturing process that goes into its unibody aluminum casing.

Nokia Brings Updated Windows Phone, the $99 Lumia 928, to Verizon

Ina Fried — Fri, 10 May 2013 15:52:11 +0000

Nokia on Friday announced its long-rumored Lumia 928, a high-end Windows Phone model for Verizon.

The phone will go on sale May 16 for $99 (after a $50 rebate).

It’s a new take on the Lumia 920 that debuted last year. Though generally similar, it features a different screen technology, improved flash and audio recording, and is a bit thinner than the model that has long been on sale at AT&T.

The timing is a bit odd, coming on a Friday and ahead of an event Nokia has next week to talk about what’s next for the Lumia line.

Nokia and Windows Phone as a whole have been slower to bring models to CDMA carriers, focusing much of their time and energy on the more globally used GSM technology at the core of T-Mobile and AT&T’s networks.

Verizon has been selling the Lumia 822, a more midrange model, as well as Windows Phones from Samsung and HTC.

Sprint has said it will offer its first Windows Phone 8 devices this summer.

Meanwhile, two other Nokia models — on sale elsewhere — are just making their way to the U.S. T-Mobile is selling the entry-level Lumia 521 for $150 without subsidies, while AT&T’s new Aio prepaid brand is carrying the Lumia 620.

Apple: Google Is Not a "Friend of the Court" in Samsung Case

John Paczkowski — Thu, 09 May 2013 11:02:51 +0000

In Apple’s sprawling legal battle with Samsung, Google is hardly an impartial party. It’s the author of the Android mobile operating system that the South Korean conglomerate has used to capture about one third of the global smartphone market. So for it to tender an amicus curiae, or “friend of the court,” brief on Samsung’s behalf and urge the U.S. Federal Court of Appeals to toss Apple’s request for a sales ban on some Samsung devices could be viewed as questionable.

Apple certainly views it that way.

On Wednesday the company filed a brief opposing Google’s participation in a joint amicus brief submitted earlier in the week by HTC, Red Hat, SAP and Rackspace. That brief argued, essentially, that highly complex devices like smartphones shouldn’t be subject to sales bans because they use “trivial patented features.” In opposing it, Apple takes no issue with that argument or with the intentions of HTC, SAP, Red Hat or Rackspace in submitting it. But it objects to Google acting as lead party on a brief in a case in which it has an obvious interest.

“Google is the developer of the Android operating system running on the Samsung smartphones that Apple seeks to enjoin in this case,” Apple wrote in its opposition. “That interest conflicts with the traditional role of an amicus as an impartial friend of the court — not an adversary party in interest in the litigation.”

Apple’s view, then, is that Google is more co-defendant in this case than anything else, and it shouldn’t be allowed to masquerade as an impartial, concerned party.

And for the iPhone maker to flat out state that is worth noting. Because since these lawsuits first began, Apple has gone out of its way to avoid attacking Google head on.

Not that this is an attack; it certainly isn’t. But it is something of a challenge.

Apple’s implication is clear: If Google’s got something to say about the case, it should join it.

An interesting bit of messaging from Cupertino, which to date has been suing Android licensees as proxies through which to strike at Google.

HTC First (That Facebook Phone) Drops From 99 Bucks to 99 Cents at AT&T

Ina Fried — Wed, 08 May 2013 19:32:10 +0000

Just a month after its introduction, AT&T is cutting the contract price for the Facebook Home-equipped HTC First to nearly free for those willing to sign a two-year contract.

The phone, which went on sale for $99 on April 12, is currently priced at 99 cents.

“We do promotions like this all the time,” said AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel, declining to comment on how sales have been for the midrange Android device.

Facebook didn’t comment on sales, either, though a spokesman said, “We think this is a good move by AT&T, and have highlighted the new price on our Facebook Mobile page.”

An HTC representative was not immediately available for comment.

The HTC First is the first device to come with Facebook Home software built in, though it is a free download for other phones, and Facebook has updated its messenger software to include the multitasking Chat Heads feature.

The phone, which debuted on AT&T, is also headed to France Telecom-Orange, which plans to sell it in France and in the United Kingdom through its EE joint venture.

Facebook said at the launch of Home that it planned to work with a number of hardware makers to create phones with Home built in. Listed among partners were ZTE, Lenovo, Sony and Huawei.

Update: HTC chimed in with this comment.

“Promotional pricing is common in the mobile industry.”

As for what kind of sales it has seen for the First, the company said, “HTC doesn’t comment on sales outside of our official financial announcements.”

Apple Leads Samsung in U.S. Smartphones

John Paczkowski — Fri, 03 May 2013 21:39:58 +0000

136.7 million people in the United States owned smartphones during the three month period ended in March, and nearly 40 percent of them used iPhones.

According to the latest metrics from comScore, Apple was the top smartphone manufacturer in the U.S. during the quarter, capturing a 39 percent share of the market, up from 36.3 percent in the prior quarter. With a 21.7 percent share, up slightly from the 21 percent it posted in December, Samsung placed second in comScore’s rankings.

Bringing up the rear: HTC, Motorola and LG, which all claimed less than 10 percent shares after quarter-to-quarter declines.

On the smartphone platform side of the business, Google claimed the top ranking despite a decline in market share from 53.4 percent to 52 percent. Apple placed second with a share that rose to 39 percent from 36.3 percent. BlackBerry ranked third — declining to 5.2 percent from 6.4 percent, and Microsoft ranked fourth with a 3 percent share, up from 2.9 percent.

HTC: We’re Recovering

Eva Dou — Thu, 02 May 2013 12:22:12 +0000

We’re recovering: That’s the message a battered HTC Corp. gave investors on Thursday.

After plummeting to its lowest quarterly profit on public record, the Taiwanese smartphone maker says it is on the mend as production picks up for its new flagship smartphone, the HTC One.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

BlackBerry Q10 Is Fastest-Selling Ever Smartphone at Selfridges (Updated)

John Paczkowski — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 11:00:48 +0000

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly characterized Selfridges & Co.’s smartphone selection as limited. That is not the case. Carphone Warehouse maintains a store-within-a-store at Selfridges & Co., offering a full selection of smartphones — though the department store’s website does not reflect that inventory.

Just you wait, BlackBerry is going to sell a ton of its new Qwerty-keyboard-equipped Q10 smartphone.

This according to Thorsten Heins, the struggling smartphone maker’s CEO, and early sales of the device seem to so far support that assertion. Speaking at the Milken Institute conference on Monday, Heins said the company has high hopes for the Q10. “We have very, very good first signs already after the launch in the U.K.,” Heins said. “This is going into the installed base of more than 70 million BlackBerry users, so we have quite some expectations. We expect several tens of million of units.”

Is that a reasonable expectation, or an unreasonable one?

Though it only began shipping in the U.K. a few days ago, the Q10 already seems to be in very high demand. Selfridges & Co., a British department store that had an early exclusive on the Q10, blew through its initial stock within two hours last Friday. And on Monday the store issued a press release declaring the handset its fastest-selling consumer electronics product ever. Said Selfridges exec Julian Slim, “The BlackBerry Q10 has been, without a doubt, the most highly anticipated smartphone we have ever sold and is already our most successful.”

Now, granted, we’re talking about one department store chain with four locations in a single country. Still, Selfridges & Co.’s experience suggests that are plenty of BlackBerry loyalists out there who have been waiting patiently for the company’s next Qwerty phone. And the Q10 has been garnering some great reviews that may push consumers looking for a serious smartphone with a physical keyboard to consider it.

Microsoft Takes Hard Edge Against Android, iPhone in Latest Windows Phone Ad

Ina Fried — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 15:00:01 +0000

One of Windows Phone’s biggest challenges remains convincing buyers that the iPhone and Android aren’t the only options.

With a new TV ad, Microsoft is trying a little humor to make that point.

The ad depicts a wedding filled with smartphone fanboys and fangirls who break into a fight over whose phone is best. Two staff members look on with their colorful Lumia 920s and wonder if the wedding guests might feel differently if they had tried their phone.

“We have our own fans, of course,” Microsoft’s Michael Stroh said in a blog post. “And while they may be outnumbered (for now), they’re no less proud and routinely urge us to do more to get the word out about Windows Phone … There are choices. iPhone and Android smartphones aren’t the only — or even best — options out there for all smartphone buyers.”

The ad, posted below, debuted during the “Today” show on Monday, and is due for a national TV run.

Google Shares Dip as Microsoft Strikes Licensing Deal With Hon Hai

Mike Isaac — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 16:37:58 +0000

Shares of Google took a small drop on Wednesday morning on news that Microsoft — the Redmond, Wash., software giant sitting on a stockpile of software patents — had struck a licensing deal with Foxconn parent company Hon Hai, effectively dealing a blow to Google in its ongoing litigation struggles with Microsoft.

Google took a hit of more that 1.5 percent this morning, dropping more than $12 to trade at close to $780 per share.

“We are pleased that the list of companies benefitting from Microsoft’s Android licensing program now includes the world’s largest contract manufacturer, Hon Hai,” Horacio Gutierrez, corporate VP and deputy general counsel of the IP group at Microsoft, said in a statement.

The agreement between Microsoft and Hon Hai effectively means that any Android or Chrome devices — such as handsets or notebooks — created by manufacturers in the Hon Hai group will require royalty payments to Microsoft.

“We recognize and respect the importance of international efforts that seek to protect intellectual property,” Samuel Fu, director of the Intellectual Property Department at Hon Hai, said in a statement. “The licensing agreement with Microsoft represents those efforts and our continued support of international trade agreements that facilitate implementation of effective patent protection.”

Google has long fought Microsoft’s claims that parts of the Android and Chrome software infringe on Microsoft’s vast collection of intellectual property holdings.

But a number of other hardware manufacturers — like HTC, Samsung, LG and more — have already signed licensing agreements with Microsoft to pay royalty fees for each Android or Chrome device manufactured.

HTC Makes the One the Android to Beat

Katherine Boehret — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 22:16:55 +0000

[ See post to watch video ]

In the crowded world of Android, it pays to be bold. HTC has spent years pairing its striking hardware designs with memorable software overlays for Android. But Samsung has surged ahead with a few bold moves of its own.

In an attempt to get some of its mojo back, HTC created a new smartphone with an old name: the HTC One. This $200 device (with two-year contract) will be available on April 19 from AT&T and Sprint. AT&T will also offer a $300 device with twice the memory, and a T-Mobile model is coming later this spring.

I enjoyed using an AT&T model and can recommend it to anyone looking for a new Android phone. It comes loaded with the latest version of Android and HTC’s usual Sense software overlay, which makes the One look and behave differently than other Android smartphones. In the future, the HTC One will be able to run Facebook Home, which puts the social network front and center. And I captured several extraordinary photos with this smartphone’s camera.

Still, it wasn’t flawless. I found the Back and Home icons didn’t always glow when I used the Facebook app, leaving me wondering how to navigate away from the app. And icons on the camera screen didn’t change from horizontal to vertical when I held the phone in portrait view. HTC attributed the former to a light sensor that may need tweaking and the latter to a bug it plans to fix via a software update later this year.

HTC One has a 4.7-inch touchscreen that rivals the iPhone 5 and a high-quality camera.

If looks are important to you, you’ll like this smartphone’s design. It’s elegant and thin with a curved back that’s made to fit your palm. With a 4.7-inch touchscreen at 468 pixels per inch, this display outshines Apple’s iPhone 5 and the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S4. Its aluminum build gives it a sturdy feel — but makes it slightly heavier than the S4 and iPhone 5. The One’s aluminum back felt a bit slippery at times and I dropped it on several occasions.

Voice calls sounded crisp and clear and though I didn’t perform a formal battery test, I found myself using the One for a full day without a recharge. AT&T’s 4G LTE network proved speedy for email, Web browsing and various apps, including Google Maps for navigation around Washington, D.C. In downtown D.C., my average download speed was 14.5 megabits per second, peaking at 18.78 MBPS, while uploads averaged 9.84 MBPS. This isn’t quite as fast as Verizon’s LTE, but it wasn’t enough to notice any drag.

The HTC One camera aims to dispel the megapixel myth that has flummoxed people — that a higher megapixel count always equals better photos. This smartphone’s camera is measured at 2 UltraPixels, which are larger than ordinary pixels and are designed to capture better quality images. HTC uses a better sensor that can capture 300 percent more light than many 13-megapixel cameras, an improved processor and optical-image stabilization, among other things.

I was skeptical at first. But I captured shots in a dark room with the lights off that looked crisp and clear — not blurry or washed out by a flash. I took a photo of someone in a dimly lit chapel and it looked as if the person was in a room with plenty of light.

Outside on a sunny day, this camera was just showing off. I captured many shots of spring flowers and a cherry blossom tree, sunlight glistening on flower petals and tree branches. Of the three smartphones in my bag, I repeatedly reached for the HTC One to take photos.

If you aren’t crazy about capturing videos that take up a lot of storage space on your phone, Zoes might be your speed. These are 3-second videos that are captured by shifting the camera capture button to Zoe. I took several Zoes, but found them unsatisfying. I captured a train whizzing by, flowers blowing in the wind and my husband making a funny face. They showed up in my phone’s photo gallery as moving pictures that reminded me of those portraits that hang on the walls in Harry Potter movies. Yet, I didn’t know quite what to do with them.

Enter HTC Zoe Share. This is a smart option that shares many photos and Zoes at once. Shares are emailed via a Web link that lasts for 180 days. I shared these links from my phone with friends who used computers, iPhones and iPads to open them.

The Zoes appeared mixed in with the still shots in an on-screen collage. But if you’re not using HTC Zoe Share, these three-second Zoe clips are pretty much stuck on your phone. If you try to share them via Facebook or Twitter, they appear as still images that can’t be emailed. And why would you really want to share just three seconds of anything?

A new interface called BlinkFeed appears on the HTC One’s home screen with a tap on its tile-like icon. BlinkFeed is meant to give you bits of information as you glance down at your phone in line at the coffee shop or while in the elevator.

You set up BlinkFeed to display content from news sources of your choice like the Associated Press, Huffington Post, ESPN and others. These feeds can be mixed in with your Twitter and Facebook news feeds.

The BlinkFeed design is attractive, showing photos and text in a Flipboard-like mesh that you can quickly scroll up or down. To read more about an article, tap on it to see a short summary, then follow a link to read the entire article.

Those looking for a new take on Android, and especially a better smartphone camera, should consider the HTC One.

Email Katie at katie.boehret@wsj.com.

HTC Profit Slumps on Product Delay

Eva Dou — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 12:30:29 +0000

HTC Corp.’s first-quarter net profit slumped 98 percent from a year earlier after sales suffered from the delayed launch of the company’s new flagship smartphone.

The Taiwanese manufacturer has been struggling against the dominance of Samsung Electronics Co. and Apple Inc. in the smartphone market, as well as the emergence of Chinese low-end market rivals. In 2010, HTC was the largest vendor in the U.S. of devices running Google Inc.’s Android operating system.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

Can a One-Two Punch of Launches Help HTC Fight Back?

Ina Fried — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 15:28:13 +0000

Taiwanese phone maker HTC is hoping that two key product launches this month will give it a much-needed boost.

The company announced the One back in February. After a short delay, that high-end phone is due out later this month.

That launch will also roughly coincide with the debut of the HTC First, the midrange “Facebook phone” announced this week.

The launches represent a critical opportunity for the once white-hot HTC, which has seen its sales decline for months amid stiff competition from bigger rivals Samsung and Apple.

“It’s big for us,” HTC President Jason Mackenzie said this week in an interview at Facebook’s event on Thursday. “We’ve got to get the brand out there in huge ways.”

While other phone makers may well offer their own devices preloaded with Facebook Home, HTC is hoping that being first will translate into some renewed attention from consumers.

“It’s hard to put a value on the buzz,” Mackenzie said.

HTC is looking to up its presence in other ways. This weekend, the company is kicking off a range of promotional activities, including live demos at selected theaters, and a series of concerts as part of an 11-city “live experience tour.”

The company has also been more aggressive in other ways lately, showing up outside Samsung’s Galaxy S 4 launch to demo the One.

But its moment in the sun could be brief. That Galaxy S 4, which is due out this quarter, will no doubt be accompanied by a marketing blitz much larger than any HTC can afford.

And, thanks to its new partnership with Best Buy, Samsung will have hundreds of new storefronts from which to tout its wares.

Apple Gaining Ground on Android and Samsung in U.S. Smartphone Market

John Paczkowski — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 11:12:53 +0000

Some good news for Apple in comScore’s latest U.S. smartphone study: The company posted significant gains in both smartphone hardware and operating system market share.

For the three-month period ended in February, the iPhone was the most popular smartphone in the U.S., with a 38.9 percent market share — up 3.9 percentage points from the November quarter. And with a 38.9 percent share, iOS was the second-most-popular smartphone platform, also up 3.9 percentage points from the preceding period.

Welcome gains for Apple, particularly for their origins. The growth of iOS, for example, appears to have been achieved largely at the expense of Android. Google’s mobile OS lost two percentage points during the period comScore surveyed, falling to 51.7 percent from 53.7 percent. BlackBerry slipped as well, losing 1.9 points and ending the period at 5.4 percent (caveat: BlackBerry didn’t begin selling its new Z10 handset in the U.S. until late March). Together, the two companies lost 3.9 points of platform share, precisely the amount Apple gained.

In the smartphone hardware market, Apple’s gains also appear to stem largely from the losses of its top Android rivals — save one. HTC, Motorola and LG all saw their market share decline in the three months ended in February. Only Samsung managed to capture additional share — a single point, lifting it to 21.3 percent from 20.3 percent. That’s about a quarter of the growth Apple charted.

Now, Samsung is likely to see a more significant increase in the current quarter, thanks to the launch of the Galaxy S4, but it certainly won’t be enough to close the gap with Apple. If anything, it will simply offset the market-share losses of other Android handset makers.

In other words, Apple’s in no danger of forfeiting its lead in the U.S. smartphone hardware market anytime soon, and in the platform market, its position is secure as well, thanks to that unshaken Android-iOS duopoly, which commands a combined 90.6 percent market share.

Update: Horace Dediu has some great insight into these metrics over at Asymco.

The Buffy Story: Facebook's Long Road Home to an Android Phone

John Paczkowski — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 20:40:03 +0000

No, Facebook has not built its own smartphone. It’s done something potentially more disruptive: The company has developed software designed to let any Android phone become a Facebook phone. And, to get things started, it partnered with HTC to show what just such a phone would look like.

If this all sounds familiar, it should. That’s basically what AllThingsD said Facebook was up to — back in 2011.

At a Thursday event, Facebook uncrated Home, a family of apps that subsumes the typical Android UI with an overlay of the Facebook experience.

“We are not building a phone, and we are not building an operating system,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said during Home’s unveiling this morning. “But we’re also building something a whole lot deeper than just an ordinary app.”

That’s pretty close to what AllThingsD senior editors Ina Fried and Liz Gannes described in their 2011 series exploring Facebook’s mobile ambitions and “Buffy,” the project in which Home had its origins. That series was particularly prescient in light of today’s announcement and is well worth another read for deeper insight into Facebook’s latest foray into mobile.

Many of the same opportunities and challenges raised in that series still exist today. However, Facebook managed to avoid one set of issues by opting not to fork Google’s operating system and instead maintain compatibility and access to Google’s services.

But, in taking so long to build its Home, Facebook now has to compete against a range of other alternatives to the standard Apple and Google experiences, including Firefox OS, Windows Phone and BlackBerry 10.

Follow the links below to read up on Buffy, the effort that would ultimately birth Home.

Related Posts on the Facebook Phone:

It’s Finally Real and Its Name Is Buffy

Forking Android Offers Both Promise and Pitfalls

The “Slayer” That Wasn’t

If It Comes, Will It Already Be Too Late?

The Facebook Phone: Why Would You Want One?

Full Facebook Phone Coverage »

Facebook's Phone Also Coming to France Telecom-Orange, but First to AT&T

Ina Fried — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 18:58:34 +0000

AT&T will be first with the HTC Facebook phone, but plenty of other carriers are lining up to be second.

Among those also carrying the HTC First will be France Telecom-Orange, which plans to sell it in France and in the United Kingdom, through its EE joint venture.

The HTC device is the first in a series of phones that will come preloaded with the Facebook Home software introduced by the social network on Thursday.

“We have been working for months and months with Facebook,” France Telecom-Orange’s Yves Maitre said in an interview. AT&T will start selling the HTC First for $99.99 on April 12; Orange said that its launch will come this summer, with pricing and an exact date to be announced later.

Orange and AT&T are among the carriers and hardware makers that are part of a program Facebook has to get the software onto new device.

Other partners listed on Thursday include Chinese phone makers Alcatel One Touch, Huawei, ZTE and Lenovo, as well as giants Sony and Samsung.

And whereas Orange executives are known for talking about how challenging some of their other hardware partners can be, Maitre said Facebook has been very open to input from carriers.

“It has been a great collaboration,” he said. “It has been a lot of fun to work with them and that is not always the case.”

RELATED POSTS:

Ten Minutes With Adam Mosseri, the Guy in Charge of Facebook Home

If Facebook Made a Real Facebook Home (Comic)

The Buffy Story: Facebook’s Long Road Home to an Android Phone

Facebook’s Phone Also Coming to France Telecom-Orange, but First to AT&T

Content, Content Everywhere In Facebook’s Ideal Mobile World

Can Facebook Build an Android-Style Home on the iPhone? Probably Not.

How to Turn Your Handset Into a Facebook Phone

HTC First: The Hardware Side to Facebook Home

Buffy Has Landed: Facebook Launches Home, Its Android Phone Project

Content, Content Everywhere in Facebook's Ideal Mobile World

Mike Isaac — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 18:44:17 +0000

Apps are so last year. The future, according to Facebook, is people, photos, messages and sweet, sweet content.

The company pulled back the cover on its Android initiative at an event at its Menlo Park campus on Thursday, showing off “Home,” Facebook’s vision for how the hundreds of millions of Facebook users will interact with their mobile devices.

Yes, it’s essentially Facebook-izing your phone, a different interface to access your apps and personal connections.

“What would it look like if our phones were designed around people, not apps?” CEO Mark Zuckerberg said at the event.

But it’s way more than that. Facebook wants to blur the lines between individual applications and the way you interact with your device, interweaving different Facebook services — and, ultimately, Facebook content — throughout all parts of the Android phone. The two most significant ways of doing that are with “Chat Heads” and “Cover Feed,” two entirely new conceits that come with the installation of Facebook Home.

The real gem here, however, is Cover Feed — basically a non-stop flow of photos, status updates and Facebook content flowing through your phone, whether you’re using it or not. The lock screen and home screen no longer exist as static repositories for applications. Power on your phone, and you’ll be subject to a never-ending cascade of everything flowing through your News Feed.

Think of the possibilities here. Instead of having to access your Facebook app directly on your mobile device to view the News Feed, Facebook will always have its content stuck front and center, right in your face. It’s the answer to our massive shift to accessing the Web via our mobile devices over the desktop.

That, my friends, is where the money comes in. As Zuckerberg said (very quickly) at the event, “there are no ads in [Cover Feed] yet.” But — and this is a big but! — “I’m sure at some point there will be,” he followed up.

Think about that for a second. How valuable would it be for you, as an advertiser, to have your ad cycled in front of tens of thousands of faces staring at their phone’s home screen? What about small-time app developers who want Facebook’s mobile app install ad suggestions in front of potential customers? This is huge.

And I imagine at some point, when ads do show up on the device, Facebook could subsidize the phones to make them cheap, if not entirely free. (Not today, though. Still costs a hundred bucks to get an out-of-the-box Facebook phone.)

Messaging, too, carries with it a great deal of potential. Chat Heads essentially makes mobile messaging on the phone a persistent service; instead of a notification that goes away at the top of your screen, a small bauble icon featuring your friend’s head will pop up to the right-hand side, overlaid on top of the screen regardless of whether you’re in an app or the home screen.

Now look at how other major messaging competitors like WhatsApp, Line and KakaoTalk are using their messaging services. You’re able to insert photos, videos and in some cases small mobile games into the messaging application. Zynga, too, is rumored to be in talks with some companies to promote its games inside of some of these messaging apps.

So think of this future. A Facebook phone in every hand, with content circulating throughout its messaging capabilities, its lock screen, its home screen. It is non-stop Facebook — in your face — all the time. It is Facebook escaping being relegated to a mere app, invading every facet of your mobile experience. It is a potential boon for ad dollars, for partnerships, for additional outside content.

Now, all Facebook needs is for you — and all of your Android-loving friends — to install Home on your phones, and to get Home capable of running on more and more Android devices.

Time to get to work.

RELATED POSTS:

Ten Minutes With Adam Mosseri, the Guy in Charge of Facebook Home

If Facebook Made a Real Facebook Home (Comic)

The Buffy Story: Facebook’s Long Road Home to an Android Phone

Facebook’s Phone Also Coming to France Telecom-Orange, but First to AT&T

Content, Content Everywhere In Facebook’s Ideal Mobile World

Can Facebook Build an Android-Style Home on the iPhone? Probably Not.

How to Turn Your Handset Into a Facebook Phone

HTC First: The Hardware Side to Facebook Home

Buffy Has Landed: Facebook Launches Home, Its Android Phone Project

HTC First: The Hardware Side to Facebook Home

Ina Fried — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 17:41:00 +0000

While Facebook isn’t building its own phone exactly, it is creating all the tools a hardware maker needs to create such a device.

In addition to making Facebook Home available as a software download, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company has crafted a set of tools for phone makers to include Home from the outset.

The company has a list of hardware makers and carriers already interested in doing such devices, including Samsung, Sony, Huawei and Alcatel One Touch.

As we reported more than a year ago, the first partner will be HTC, which is creating a phone to be sold with AT&T. HTC chief Peter Chou appeared onstage on Thursday to show off the aptly named HTC First, which will be the first device to carry Facebook Home as its default interface.

The phone, which will sell for $99.99 and go on sale April 12, will come in red, white, light blue and black. Preorders start today.

AT&T Mobility chief Ralph de la Vega said the HTC First is a canvas on which to show off what Facebook has done.

“It’s simple and it’s elegant,” de la Vega said.

RELATED POSTS:

Ten Minutes With Adam Mosseri, the Guy in Charge of Facebook Home

If Facebook Made a Real Facebook Home (Comic)

The Buffy Story: Facebook’s Long Road Home to an Android Phone

Facebook’s Phone Also Coming to France Telecom-Orange, but First to AT&T

Content, Content Everywhere In Facebook’s Ideal Mobile World

Can Facebook Build an Android-Style Home on the iPhone? Probably Not.

How to Turn Your Handset Into a Facebook Phone

HTC First: The Hardware Side to Facebook Home

Buffy Has Landed: Facebook Launches Home, Its Android Phone Project

Facebook Launches Home, Its Android Phone Project

Ina Fried — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 17:03:09 +0000

After years of construction, Facebook is at long last revealing its effort to build “a new home” on Android.

“Today we are finally going to be talking about that Facebook phone. Or, more accurately, we are going to talk about how you can turn your Android device … into a great social phone,” Mark Zuckerberg said, kicking off the event at company headquarters in Menlo Park. “We think this is the best version of Facebook there is.”

Facebook Home, as the product is known, isn’t a phone, per se, but rather a series of customizations that replaces the look and feel of a standard Android phone with a set of Facebook apps, home screens and messaging experiences.

As we first reported in a series of articles more than a year ago, the project to create a custom Facebook phone on top of Android — code-named Buffy — has been going on for some time.

Facebook has since spent a lot of time noting that it is not building a phone — which is technically true. However, it has built the software guts of one, and it even partnered with HTC to put a hardware face on its the project.

Zuckerberg stressed that what Facebook is doing isn’t building a phone or an operating system, but rather an experience that is a family of apps that becomes your home screen on a standard Android device.

“You don’t need to fork Android to do this,” Zuckerberg said. Facebook Home will be an update on Google Play to the social network’s existing Facebook app. It will be available initially only for phones, with tablet support coming within several months.

Updates to Facebook Home will also come monthly, the company said, arguing that yearly updates such as those made to Android just aren’t frequent enough.

Zuckerberg reiterated why the company is focused on the software rather than a single phone. Zuckerberg said that a great phone might sell 10 million or 20 million units — one percent of Facebook’s total user base.

“We’re not building a phone, and we’re not building an operating system, but we are also building something that is a lot more … than an ordinary app,” he said.

Zuckerberg took aim at the app-centric approach taken by most modern smartphones, saying phones should be about people rather than programs.

Facebook isn’t the only company trying to move away from an app-centric world. Windows Phone, for example, has a People hub that focuses on all the ways that someone connects with a person and their photos and updates.

Apps, of course, are still a part of phones, so an app launcher is just a swipe away.

One particular feature should be more than just an app, Zuckerberg said, and that’s messaging. The company has built a new experience where “Chat Heads” — little pictures of your friends — pop up when a new message comes in.

Beyond the cute head shots, Chat Heads allow messaging to take place in any app, rather than requiring a user to either stop what they are doing or risk ignoring the person seeking their attention.

“It really feels like your friends are always there,” said Joey Flynn, the Facebook designer who created the messaging experience.

Chat Heads work with both text messages and incoming Facebook messages.

RELATED POSTS:

Ten Minutes With Adam Mosseri, the Guy in Charge of Facebook Home

If Facebook Made a Real Facebook Home (Comic)

The Buffy Story: Facebook’s Long Road Home to an Android Phone

Facebook’s Phone Also Coming to France Telecom-Orange, but First to AT&T

Content, Content Everywhere In Facebook’s Ideal Mobile World

Can Facebook Build an Android-Style Home on the iPhone? Probably Not.

How to Turn Your Handset Into a Facebook Phone

HTC First: The Hardware Side to Facebook Home

Buffy Has Landed: Facebook Launches Home, Its Android Phone Project

Does Anyone Actually Want a "Facebook Phone"?

Mike Isaac — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 18:46:37 +0000

Something Facebook mobile this way comes.

And depending on what you read, it’s a little different here and there. A proper Facebook phone. Or not a Facebook phone, but a very Facebook-y version of a phone. Whatever it is, we’re in agreement that it involves Facebook and a phone.

But let’s rewind for a second: Who among us would actually want to buy a Facebook phone, much less use it as a primary device?

Yes, more than half a billion people use Facebook on their phones daily. And yes! Facebook is the most downloaded app across modern-day smartphones! But Facebook has slowly made its endgame here very clear: The company wants you to use all its services — namely texting, voice calling and emailing — as your primary mode of communication over your existing SMS, email and voice services.

There’s probably a hardcore set of Facebook lovers who do indeed use, or would desire to use, all of Facebook’s mobile services to contact others. But that group has to be incredibly small. And some of Facebook’s more interesting mobile features, like voice calling, have only been out for a handful of months, and only in certain countries.

I’d argue that the majority of the world’s mobile-loving population isn’t built the way Facebook wants it to be.

I may use SMS texts to contact, say, my friend who hates using Facebook and doesn’t want an account. And then perhaps I’ll switch to good old-fashioned telephone calls to check in with my folks, who aren’t as tech savvy as some (Dad doesn’t own a smartphone). Then I’ll switch to WhatsApp to send a message to a techie friend, or perhaps use that app to contact another friend outside the U.S. (where it’s massively popular). Finally, I’ll jump on Snapchat to snap a creepshot of a friend and send it to someone else.

The point is this: In the tech world, context is king. On some level, we as people don’t want to funnel all of our communication through one central service. We like different apps for different things — even if it makes more sense to use one central service. It’s why Poke, Facebook’s Snapchat clone, failed miserably. It’s why Google’s plan to unify all of its services using Google Plus isn’t working at all. And it’s why, despite Facebook’s massive marketing muscle and install base, these apps continue to flourish.

Now, I totally get why Facebook wants to make a phone happen. More usage of Facebook on mobile means more potential ad products viewed and used, which means more revenue. As we’ve reported in the past, the company has experimented with multiple ways of making this happen, from a physical device to derivations of the Android operating system.

And I get why a company like HTC is willing to experiment with a Facebook-centric device. The company is in dire straits, plunging in market value over the past year. It needs a pitch to consumers that yes, it too can produce awesome phones.

What I don’t get is why regular folks — who can already use Facebook on their phone — would ever want to buy it.

Facebook to Host Android Mobile Event

Mike Isaac — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 00:19:18 +0000

Facebook will hold an Android-focused mobile event at its Menlo Park campus, according to invitations sent out to reporters on Thursday.

The invitation itself is light on detail, stating only “come see our new home on Android” in the body text. The event will be held the morning of April 4, a Thursday.

Facebook has been exploring what it may be able to accomplish around Android for some time now, doing much of the work that would be needed to create its own phone (namely Project Buffy, which we’ve reported on for some time). For years the company has focused its mobile efforts around the iPhone (for the present) and HTML5 (for the future) — however, it began a major Android push several months ago.

With good reason. The Android OS has massive reach around the world, penetrating deep in emerging international markets in which, unlike the United States, Facebook isn’t the dominant social network. So continuing to broaden the social giant’s presence on the wide-reaching operating system, in any capacity, is in part a play for expanding the billion-strong social network’s userbase.

Facebook has been laying the groundwork for getting deeper into the guts of a phone in other ways, too.

The company’s popular Messenger app, for example, has the ability to directly route text and voice calls to another Facebook user without the need for a phone number. Its authentication mechanism is widely used by app makers for login, and it has been trying to make its social graph a more useful means of app discovery. And, of course, Facebook has its other mobile apps taking up smartphone real estate: Poke, Camera and the ever-popular Instagram.

To be sure, Facebook has already made major strides in improving its existing Android footprint. Shortly after speeding up its iOS app, Facebook released a major update to the Android version of the app, and has devoted significant mobile engineering resources to working on Android for some time.

Ina Fried contributed to this report.

Don't Believe Everything You Read on Twitter: Verizon Is So Getting HTC One

Ina Fried — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 18:08:42 +0000

One of the challenges of having the skinny on things is that sometimes even the official folks aren’t always in the know.

I’m assured that’s the case with last week’s scoop that Verizon also plans to carry the HTC One.

Someone at HTC took to its official U.S. Twitter account to say that Verizon wasn’t going to have the high-end Android phone, and instead directed customers to the currently shipping Droid DNA by HTC.

“The HTC One will not be available on the Verizon network, but have you seen the awesome #DROIDDNA?” reads the tweet, which was re-posted at Ubergizmo and other tech sites.

However, that tweet itself has now been pulled down.

As we said, Verizon is getting the HTC One, but it won’t be for a little while. Expect Verizon to start shipping the HTC One about one to two months after the first U.S. carrier starts shipping the device.

Rather Than Just Watch Samsung's Show, HTC Gets In on the Act

Ina Fried — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 01:07:28 +0000

As reporters and others waited to get into Radio City Music Hall on Thursday, they had a chance to play with one of the latest high-end Android devices. But it wasn’t the Galaxy S4.

It was the HTC One.

The Taiwanese phonemaker dispatched a street team to pass out snacks and hot cocoa while demoing the HTC phone as folks gathered for Samsung’s big event.

“For us it’s a good opportunity to let people compare real-time,” HTC President Jason Mackenzie said in an interview. “We have the best smartphone in the world right now, and we want to seize the opportunity to get it into as many hands as possible.”

To that end, HTC also passed out coupons offering $100 to those who trade in their phone for the new One.

HTC wasn’t alone in seizing Samsung’s big stage to try and grab some attention. LG had a billboard above Samsung’s Times Square signage, while Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller did a round of interviews ahead of Thursday’s launch.

But taking on Samsung so directly represents a new approach for HTC. For years, the company sold its phones under the tagline “quietly brilliant,” and tended to have a marketing approach to match.

After losing significant ground, though, the company has decided it needs to speak up if it doesn’t want to see its fortunes erode further.

Plus, the HTC One and Galaxy S4 are really targeted at the same buyer, and both are due to hit the market around the same time.

“We’ve got to compete,” Mackenzie told AllThingsD. “These two products will spend their product life in market together.”

All four U.S. carriers will carry the Galaxy S4. At its February launch, HTC announced the One would be carried by AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile. As first reported by AllThingsD, Verizon is also prepping to carry the One, though it is likely to arrive a month or two later than at the other U.S. carriers.

Pricing has not been announced for either product, though Mackenzie expects both to carry a similar price tag.

“I’m sure both products will come out under $200,” Mackenzie said. “That would be my expectation.”

After watching the Galaxy S4′s glitzy launch, though, Mackenzie quipped, “Maybe it wil cost more because they have to pay for the tap dancers.”

But, more seriously, Mackenzie knows that HTC has to compete not only with the new features Samsung introduces but with all the money they have to spend on billboards, TV ads and splashy launches.

“We expect Samsung to spend a ton of money on marketing,” he said. For its part, HTC can’t afford to match Samsung, but it also can’t hide or shy away. Whereas in the past HTC has spent heavily in spurts, Mackenzie said to expect a sustained push around the HTC One, one that will extend over the life of the product.

“As a consumer you will see us,” he said. “You will know there are things that make the HTC One great.”

Exclusive: HTC One Headed to Verizon, Too

Ina Fried — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 16:15:48 +0000

It looks like HTC’s One really will be the one flagship for the Taiwanese phone maker.

When HTC announced the phone last month, it said the One would be sold at AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile. A mention of Verizon was noticeably absent.

However, Verizon will also carry the high-end Android device, according to a source familiar with the situation. Its launch at Verizon, though, will trail the other U.S. carriers by a month or two as it winds its way through the testing process.

HTC and Verizon representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The eventual launch at Verizon means that all four major carriers will be carrying the One, allowing the product to fulfill a key objective for the struggling phone maker.

When HTC announced the first One models in 2012, the goal was to create a single flagship line that would help define HTC’s image in the minds of consumers. The first One series, though, was actually three distinct phones — the One X, One V and One S.

What’s more, Sprint and Verizon opted to carry their own high-end HTC models rather than any of the three Ones.

This year, though, HTC has managed to get all four carriers to support the One. That should help the company, which is seeking to boost its visibility and better compete against high-end rivals, particularly Apple and Samsung.

HTC is not alone in having to struggle to get mobile operators on board with carrying the same flagship models. Samsung made a host of Galaxy models before convincing carriers to go with essentially the same Galaxy S3 last year.

Having the same model at all the carriers could help HTC get more bang for its marketing bucks, as it can focus the bulk of its efforts on a single product.

And it will need every bit of that budget to compete against Samsung’s Galaxy S4, which is slated to be unveiled Thursday at a glitzy launch in Manhattan.

The once high-flying Taiwanese phone maker has been struggling mightily in recent months. The company has seen its market share slip even as it continues to produce well-regarded phones.

The company has said it plans to speak with a louder voice this year as it tries to regain lost ground.