The world's largest social network has been attempting to improve its performance on smaller screens, which now make up 23 per cent of its revenues.
Analysts have expressed continued concerns, however, that more users are migrating to mobile phones in particular, and that Facebook will struggle to make money from those people.
Although Facebook has worked with HTC before, on the ChaCha phone, it has not previously met with enormous success. The new device will reportedly feature a dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM with a 4.3-inch screen. This, combined with the fact it will run Android 4.1.2 "Jelly Bean" and HTC Sense 4.5, reinforces suggestions that Facebook does not see hardware as key for its success on mobile. It will also feature 5-megapixel rear camera and a 1.6-megapixel front camera.
On the earning calls for its most recent results, Zuckerberg said "We're not going to build a phone", but emphasised that it was easy to integrate with Android because of its open architecture.
Although Facebook has a deal with Microsoft to use the Bing search engine, Facebook Home also includes the option to use other search engines such as Google.
Writing on Seeking Alpha, Kyle Spencer applauded Facebook's "better late than never" move.
"A vertically integrated, horizontally deployed Facebook 'mini-ecosystem' will move the needle on user engagement and therefore advertising revenues more effectively than if Facebook attempted to introduce it's own proprietary phone/OS into a crowded field against better funded competitors," he said. "Tactically, it's a brilliant move."
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