HTC Status may exit ATT early

(Update: AT&T response) AT&T might be facing a humbling early exit for what was supposed to be a halo phone, informers hinted late Tuesday. The HTC Status, better known as HTC's primary Facebook phone, is already believed close to being tossed after poor sales. Hard data wasn't available, but TechCrunch was told by more than one of its connections that sales were "considerably lower than anyone expected."

The carrier has been reached for comment but hasn't responded as of this writing.

For HTC, the Status (known elsewhere as the ChaCha) is considered its experiment in whether or not it can capture the success of the BlackBerry. Along with the QWERTY candybar design, its trick is a dedicated button that shares any active content on Facebook. With BlackBerry still declining, HTC may have embraced a design that was falling out of favor no matter who made its software.

The Status was also low end at a time when most of the better-selling Android phones are at least mid-range and increasingly high-end. Apple may have also played a role, as both the iPhone 4 and 3GS are the top two smartphones and themselves push Android sales down.

Update: AT&T responded that it saw the Status as a "great product" and that intentions for it to be "part of our portfolio" were staying the same. It didn't explicitly state what lifespan the Status would have.

By Electronista Staff

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