New HTC First smartphone with Home by Facebook coming to Europe with Orange in France and EE in the UK as exclusive launch partners

HTC - Press Releases - April 4, 2013 

New HTC First smartphone with Home by Facebook coming to Europe with Orange in France and EE in the UK as exclusive launch partners 

• HTC is launching the first smartphone with an entirely new Facebook experience, called Home, exclusively with Orange in France and EE in the UK

• The launch of the 4G HTC First with Home builds on long-standing relationship between Facebook and Orange to deliver the best Facebook experience to Orange customers

• The HTC First will be available from Summer 2013.  EE and Orange France will confirm pricing and exact availability at a later date

Paris, 4th April, 2013 – Today Orange is announcing it is the exclusive European launch partner of Facebook in bringing the new HTC First smartphone to customers with Orange in France and EE in the UK. 

The HTC First with Home by Facebook is a 4G smartphone providing an entirely new Facebook experience on two of the best mobile networks in Europe, along with the best services from EE and Orange. With Home, Orange and EE customers will get friends' updates directly on their home screen, messages and notifications will reach them no matter what they’re doing, and photo sharing becomes even easier – all via the new 4G network in France with Orange, and 4G on EE.

“Orange has worked with Facebook to bring the best possible Facebook experience to our customers around the world for years, from increasing mobile access to Facebook in emerging markets to the launch of Home today,” said Jean-Paul Cottet, Executive Vice President, Marketing & Innovation at Orange. “We are proud to be Facebook’s exclusive partner in bringing the HTC First, with the most advanced and richest mobile Facebook experience available, to our customers on the best 4G mobile networks in France and the UK.”

“With Home enabled out of the box, you’ll be able to get everyone's latest updates and messages right on your home screen,” said Dan Rose, Vice President of Partnerships at Facebook.

"True to HTC’s track record of providing cutting edge design, and being first to offer new smartphone experiences to the market, the HTC First offers a unique home experience to Facebook's many users," said Peter Chou, CEO HTC. "Along with our partners and fellow innovators—Orange in France and EE in the UK—we anticipate excitement from customers when the HTC First becomes available, putting a user's friends and family at the centre of their mobile experience.”

The HTC First transforms the Facebook experience, featuring:

• Cover Feed: A constant stream of photos and updates from friends that is always available at a glance. Swipe through to see more and interact with friends by liking, commenting, and sharing right from the Cover Feed.
• Notifications: Thanks to Home’s deep integration with the HTC first, notifications from apps appear alongside updates from friends right on the home screen. It’s easier to see when you have a missed call, calendar reminder or new message.
• Chat Heads: Keep chatting with Facebook contacts even when using other apps.Reply right from Chat Heads, or move them around if you're not ready to respond, and send SMS and Facebook messages from the same place.
• App Launcher:  Set favourite apps and access them directly through Facebook Home.

The HTC first will be available from Summer 2013, with Orange France and EE in the UK confirming availability and pricing at a later date.

To keep up with the latest information on the HTC first, customers can visit www.facebook.com/Orange.France for Orange France and http://www.ee.co.uk/Facebook for EE in the UK.

About Orange 
France Telecom-Orange is one of the world’s leading telecommunications operators with annual sales of 43.5 billion euros and has 170,000 employees worldwide at 31 December 2012, including 105,000 employees in France. Present in 33 countries, the Group has a total customer base close to 231 million customers at 31 December 2012, including 172 million mobile customers and 15 million broadband internet (ADSL, fibre) customers worldwide. Orange is one of the main European operators for mobile and broadband internet services and, under the brand Orange Business Services, is one of the world leaders in providing telecommunication services to multinational companies.

With its industrial project, "conquests 2015", Orange is simultaneously addressing its employees, customers and shareholders, as well as the society in which the company operates, through a concrete set of action plans. These commitments are expressed through a new vision of human resources for employees; through the deployment of a network infrastructure upon which the Group will build its future growth; through the Group's ambition to offer a superior customer experience thanks in particular to improved quality of service; and through the acceleration of international development.