HTC and Facebook sitting in a tree

HTC and Facebook sitting in a tree
HTC Chacha

HTC and Facebook sitting in a tree
HTC Salsa

Recently announced at Mobile World Congress 2011, the HTC Chacha and Salsa smartphones are designed in both hardware and software to automatically integrate with Facebook. Both feature the HTC Sense interface running on top of Android 2.4.

It's interesting to see this level of integration between social media and mobile but I am lost as to how this is enough of an improvement, over the myriad of apps. that already bring Facebook to your phone, to warrant a dedicated device. It's only a fragmented software stack (widgets) with dedicated hardware controls or am I missing something? This looks of yet another example of engineering driven product design with a design activity thrown in at the end (hardware > android > htc sense > Facebook).

The Chacha, my favourite of the duo, includes a full QWERTY keyboard beneath its 2.6" touchscreen, Salsa features a 3.4" touch display.

The HTC Flyer with it's ability to sync with Evernote is a far more interesting device.