Facebook Home disappoints - start of a long journey says Zuckerberg
Facebook Home is looking like a high-profile disappointment for the social network so far. The volume of consumers downloading the smartphone app called "Home" has fallen dramatically in recent weeks, says Siliconvalley.com.
Facebook Home is something of a let-down
Users have also given a low rating to the app -- which automatically shows Facebook updates and photos on the home screen of Android phones .
Some complain that it drains battery life and makes it difficult to use other Android apps and services.
AT&T last week cut the price of the new HTC smartphone that comes with the Home app pre-installed, reducing it from $99 to just 99 cents. They did not give any sales figures.
The tech blog BGR, citing an unnamed AT&T source, reports that AT&T has decided it will soon stop selling the HTC First phone.
Facebook declined to comment on that report, but an AT&T spokesman said, "We have made no decisions about future plans."
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is said to see the Home app as a big deal for the growing number of Facebook users who access the social network on mobile devices . New types of advertising to show on mobile devices are a big part of that. The company sold $375 million worth of mobile ads last quarter, nearly a third of its ad revenue.
The idea of Home is to keep users engaged by using a smartphone's main screen to take them straight into their Facebook account. Despite some complaints, Facebook executives are standing behind the Home app, said Siliconvalley.com.
"This product is still very early and this is just a first release in a long journey," Zuckerberg has told analysts .
Other executives have said the company always intended to introduce the app gradually and add improvements based on feedback.
Home currently takes up all a phone's main screen, but a permanent "dock" or bar is to be positioned at the bottom of the screen where users can keep icons for other apps .
Other possibles: a more detailed introduction for first-time users, explaining how to use Home, and an easier method of launching chats.
Although sales of HTC First are disappointing, Facebook executives are reportedly pleased that downloads of Home, which currently works on only a handful of other Android phones, reached nearly 1 million last week.
App Annie the analytics firm, says Home was the 50th most downloaded app by U.S. users in the Google Play store the week after its release . But it has now fallen below 300 in recent weeks. Facebook's regular Android app is the store's most downloaded app in the US, according to App Annie.