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The social network Facebook has been steadily increasing in popularity with total users now approaching 1 billion and even a hit Hollywood movie being filmed about its inception. With many people now interacting with the network through their smartphone, with some reports suggesting that more than 50% of all status updates are posted from a phone, it is no surprise to see that some form of Facebook support is now a standard feature on most handsets.
Until now this has been limited to a dedicated app providing quick access or, at best, some minor integration with the phone’s interface. But the increasing popularity of Facebook on phones has led many phone manufacturers to consider making Facebook a central feature. Two such companies are the touchscreen giant HTC and the lesser known manufacturer INQ, who in fact were one of the first companies to pioneer social networking on smartphones.
These two companies have now released what are being referred to as “Facebook Phones” and, with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg promising dozens of such devices in the coming year, this could prove to be a whole new niche in the industry much in the same way that music phones and camera phones did, even though music support and cameras were originally accused of being nothing more than gimmicks.
Both manufacturers have started the ball rolling by introducing two Facebook Phones each, and both companies seem to have taken the approach of producing a fully touch sensitive device and a QWERTY messaging handset much akin to many of BlackBerry’s iconic handsets. However, in terms of Facebook features on offer the two companies have come up with different strategies.
The HTC Chacha and Salsa are unique, for the time being, for their inclusion of a dedicated Facebook button on their physical exterior. Just as many smartphones now feature dedicated music or camera buttons, the Facebook buttons on these two HTC handsets should clarify what the phones are all about. While the button can be used to provide direct access to the social network they also have a number of other uses. For example, when used in conjunction with the camera the button can allow you to more easily upload any captured images to your Facebook profile.
The INQ phones don’t come with dedicated Facebook buttons (although they do come with dedicated Spotify buttons) but they arguably offer more of a Facebook experience, with the social network woven much more deeply into their interface. Like the HTC handsets the IN Q Cloud Touch and Cloud Q come with a full frontal touchscreen and QWERTY messaging design respectively.
INQ have designed a custom Android UI that now features notifications, events, places and people directly from the homescreen. The UI also makes use of Facebook’s Social Graph API so that any information that is displayed from the social network will be more focused on your most interacted with friends. Facebook is so deeply integrated with the INQ interface that you need to enter your Facebook account details before you can activate the phone.
The INQ and HTC phones all run on Google Android although, as mentioned, the INQ phones come with a custom UI and the HTC handsets will feature HTC Sense. The HTC phones will feature a more modern Gingerbread edition of the Google OS although the INQ handsets will be probably go down more favourably with diehard Facebook fanatics. The HTC Chacha, Salsa and INQ Cloud Touch and Cloud Q are the first of what looks set to become a new niche in the world of smartphones, although if Zuckerberg is to be believed, they won’t be the last by any means.
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