Barcelona, Spain — Remember those rumors swirling around for sometime about a Facebook phone? Well, the first phones to feature a dedicated Facebook button have been confirmed by mobile maker HTC, and the people at Pocketnow scored press photos of those two Facebook handsets under development by HTC.
The much-speculated two handsets, ChaCha and Salsa seems to be entry-level Android handsets with deep Facebook integration, which will provide instant access to the popular social media network via the button. Salsa is a touchscreen phone while ChaCha will also feautre a keyboard.
HTC’s “Flyer” is a high-end, touch-screen tablet computer.
However, it seems that HTC and Facebook spent several years to bundle the social network into the phones, incorporating a dedicated Facebook key with the “F” logo that pulsates when you do something shareable on the phone, which will be announced today at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.
Although not official “Facebook phones,” but at the time of the earlier leaks, the Taiwanese handset maker declined to comment and Facebook towed the company line by confirming it had collaborated closely on the devices, but is not developing branded hardware.
The pair incorporates a full-touchscreen offering as well as a model with a front-facing keyboard and a smaller LCD. The two seem to be running a slimmed-down version of Android and feature a very prominent Facebook button.
HTC’s “ChaCha” phone with dedicated Facebook button has a touch-screen and keyboard.
As mentioned, the popular social media network is intensely knitted into the underlying OS with status updates and alerts being sent to the handset. The camera app may also allow users to automatically upload images and video to the users Facebook account. When shooting pictures, you can simply press “F” to upload them to Facebook, for example, or when using Google Maps, you can just push it to share your location.
“HTC has brought Facebook to these two new instruments in an innovative way enabling people to connect and share easily whenever they want, wherever they are,” Henri Moissinac, head of Facebook’s mobile business, said in a news release.
Peter Chou, CEO of HTC, said that “we wanted to devise the ultimate socially connected phones with mass market appeal,” while Moissinac, said “We have worked closely with HTC for several years on bringing Facebook to their devices and HTC ChaCha and HTC Salsa are the next stage.”
Jason Mackenzie, president of HTC North America in Bellevue, said Facebook’s logo appears on the special key but “we will not brand this as the Facebook phone or anything.”
Mackenzie said the “ChaCha” model, featuring a 2.6-inch touch-screen and exposed keyboard, will rival with the BlackBerry Curve.
The second model, the Salsa, is a touch-screen-only phone with a 3.4-inch screen. They will be available in the second quarter, at prices to be disclosed later.
The two Android-based devices will run on version 2.4 of Google’s Android operating system dubbed as “Gingerbread,” and offer a level of Facebook integration that has so far only been seen on INQ’s new Facebook models announced last week.
Despite HTC’s non-response, the appearance of these press photos suggest the Taiwanese manufacturer is indeed working on at least two Facebook-centric phones, and hopes the integration of the most popular social media network will appeal to a generation of new consumers who use the site more than email and run their social calendars through Facebook’s events functions.