HTC First, the Facebook phone, now going for just 99 cents

It’s not even a month since the HTC First was launched in the US on April 12 and here’s report about a drastic drop in the price of this smartphone.

Even though it runs on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, HTC First is known as the phone that runs Facebook Home out of the box. The highly controversial and not very well-received Android launcher did give the HTC First an edge over similarly-spec’d competition. But it looks like even that differentiating factor was not enough to lure buyers or, at least, not enough of them.

HTC First price drops to 99 cents

AT&T, the carrier on which First launched, is now offering a special discount for those looking to jump on to the Home bandwagon. The original price of the phone was $350.99 for the unlocked version, while the earlier on-contract price was $99. And AT&T is now offering a whopping 99 percent discount for the phone with a two-year contract. Yes, that actually comes to less than Rs 50. It must be noted that at this price, the phone will still be on contract for two years.

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For its part, HTC has said that such promotional pricing is standard procedure and is not a move in light of weak sales, even though the company declined to share details about the First’s sales. “Promotional pricing is common in the mobile industry. HTC doesn’t comment on sales outside of our official financial announcements,” a company spokesperson was quoted as saying by AllThingsD.