Facebook phone launch put on hold

The HTC First will not launch in Europe this summer

The UK launch of the "Facebook phone" has been postponed following poor sales in the United States and lukewarm customer feedback.

The HTC First handset was supposed to be in the shops this summer but the social network has no fresh date for its European unveiling. It works around the Facebook Home software, launched by chief executive Mark Zuckerberg in the US in mid-April. He claimed it would "change the relationship" that people have with their mobiles.

The Facebook Home app swaps a traditional homescreen menu for a feed of pictures and updates from the user's Facebook account. But initial feedback from American users of the HTC First included complaints that it was too "clunky".

In a statement, Facebook said: "While we focus on making Home better, we are going to limit supporting new devices and think it makes a lot of sense for EE and Orange to hold off deploying the HTC First in Europe."