It looks like no one wants the “Facebook Phone”, at least according to BGR, who says that sales of the HTC First at AT&T have been so bad that the company has decided to discontinue the device. How bad is bad? They say less than 15,000 units have been sold since the device launched in mid-April. That’s pretty horrible considering how big AT&T is.

Now granted, this is still a rumor, but let’s pretend for a second it’s true. Why did the First fail? One could point to the fact that you don’t need the First to enjoy Facebook Home. Sure, Home only supports a handful of devices, but they’re the most popular devices on the market. Why would someone spend $99 on a First when that same money could get them a Galaxy S III?

One should also look at how Facebook Home has been performing on Google’s Play Store. It took over a month to crack a million downloads. Again, some of you will point to the lack of hardware support, but, again, I’ll point out that Home supports some of the most popular Android devices currently on the market. International FB Home support took a week to roll out, at most, so I’m not counting to count that as a technicality.

Frank Meehan, who worked on the original Facebook Phone over at INQ Mobile back when Android was still something new and untested, penned a beautiful essay explaining why the First failed. If you have the time, I suggest you read it.