<p>The release of the HTC First, which is a Facebook phone, but not the Facebook Phone, is a timely reminder of what brought HTC to prominence in the smartphone world. Namely white labelling smartphones. Could they return to that strength.</p><p>The HTC First has made a number of concessions to its Social Network partner. The inclusion of Facebook Home out of the box as the launcher and home screen is the obvious one, but the device (at least in the US) does not ship with HTC's SenseUI interface. If you deactivate Facebook Home, then the First will switch back to using the standard Android launcher and environment.</p><p>The history of the smartphone has a number of HTC devices lurking in the background, not least the very first Microsoft mobile phone running Windows Mobile; the first US 4G device in the Evo-4G; and as an ODM they were the manufacturer behind the Treo 650 smartphone and the HP iPaq PDA.</p><p>It was on top of these success that HTC broke out as their own brand and started a very public and successful range of smartphones. With their experience over multiple platforms and device specifications, HTC's own strategy allowed them a wide range of their own branded handsets, from budget devices suitable for Pay as you Go network sales, right up to cutting edge devices such as this year's HTC One.</p><p><a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/ewanspence/2013/04/13/htc-reminds-everyone-what-made-them-a-smartphone-leader/">Keep reading...</a></p><p>Read also:</p><p><a href="http://profit.ndtv.com/news/industries/article-lg-becomes-no-3-smartphone-maker-by-sales-as-apple-samsung-maintain-lead-320851">LG becomes No. 3 smartphone maker by sales as Apple, Samsung maintain lead</a> (NDTV)</p><p><a href="http://www.slashgear.com/psa-why-doesnt-facebook-home-work-on-my-smartphone-12277649/">PSA: Why doesn&#039;t Facebook Home work on my smartphone?</a> (SlashGear)</p><p><a href="http://technabob.com/blog/2013/04/12/facebook-home-htc-android-smartphone/">HTC First Facebook Home Android Smartphone: Facebook All the Time!</a> (Technabob (blog))</p><p>Explore: <a href="http://news.google.com/news/more?ncl=dK55Y5N3gAQavHM2oFPqfIVoAzHsM&ned=us">366 additional articles.</a></p>