HTC First Price Drop: Facebook Phone Now Only 99 Cents on AT&T With Two-Year Contract

The HTC First with Facebook Home is now nearly free with a two-year contract at AT&T.

The carrier dropped the upfront cost of the First to only 99 cents, down from an initial price of $99. The price slashing hints at low sales and low interest in the device, amid-tier phone whose main draw is the integration of the Facebook Home series of apps directly into the user interface, overlaying the stock Android skin.

The home screen becomes a fullscreen News Feed, now dubbed Cover Feed, and Facebook notifications, including "likes" and status updates, appear beside system notifications and messages.

We don't have any sales figures, so the First could be selling briskly, but that seems unlikely. Indeed, the extreme level of Facebook integration could be driving potential buyers away. The First's mediocre specs offer nothing to potential buyers who aren't enamored of the Facebook experience, so it's plausible that anyone outside that target audience is shunning the phone.

In any case, it's been a bad gamble for all companies involved. AT&T positioned the first as its flagship HTC phone for the spring, eschewing the chance to focus on the HTC One, which has been very popular, even amid delays and supply shortages.

The One is the only thing keeping HTC afloat this year, so the phone manufacturer missed out on further promotions for its only lifeboat, though its understandable why HTC would want to diversify.

And Facebook just looks silly. It takes a lot of hubris to think consumers want a phone devoted wholly to a single website.

The HTC First features a 1.4GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor, 1GB of RAM, a 4.3-inch 720p Super LCD display, a 5-megapixel camera rear-facing camera, a 1.6-megapixel front-facing camera and runs Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean and Facebook Home.

Check back for the latest information on the HTC First as it becomes available.