Path to be a featured app on three Sprint devices

Path to be one of a group of apps to be highlighted in Sprint's Discover-it Widget

Path, the social network built around exclusivity, is looking to branch out.

The company is teaming up with Sprint to offer its app as a one-touch download on Samsung Galaxy S4, HTC One and Torque devices. It will be one a part of a "best-in-class group of high quality apps for their Discover-it Widget," Path announced in a blog post Wednesday.

Other apps that are in the same group seem to be Amazon, The Weather Channel, Yahoo, Gameloft, SFL, Pogoplug and WhitePages.

No financial terms were included about the deal, nor any futher details about how long the promotion would last. A spokesperson from Sprint had no further information to share beyond the blog post, and pointed to this quote from Kevin McGinnis, vice president of product at Sprint:

“Sprint and Path are finding ways to collaborate to enhance our customers’ experience. This is a first step,” McGinnis said in a statement. “We’re excited to work with a mobile-first, best-in-class design company like Path.”

Vator also reached out to Path for further information, but the company could not be reached for further comment. We will, of course, update with any further information we receive.

This news comes only weeks after Path announced that it had reached over 10,000 users. The company, which added seven million users in just 10 months, y is now adding one million users every month, Morin told the Wall Street Journal in April.

Path's launched in November 2010 as a photo-sharing serviced, but chose to relaunch in November 2011, refocusing on other aspects of social sharing, including videos, messaging, songs and geolocation. Just two months later is had over 2 million users, and three million by June. 

Path's biggest asset is what set it apart from all those other networks: it only allows users to have a maximum of 150 friends. The limitation is meant to foster greater connections between people, and to encourage the sharing of more personal information. The idea is that you will only choose the people you are closest to, and will feel more comfortable telling those people more personal things about yourself. It is a more personal kind of social network.

The social network has raised over $40 million, including a $8.65 million Series A from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Index Ventures and Digital Garage Japan at the beginning of 2011 and a $30 million Series B round from Greylock Partners, Redpoint Ventures, Jerry Murdock , Sir Richard Branson, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Index Ventures, Mark Pincus, Yuri Milner and Allen & Company in April 2012.

Social networks and phones

Path is not the first social network to form a similar partnership with a smartphone manufacturer. Sometimes the partnerships are successful, sometimes they are not

A successful partnership would be when Apple added Twitter intregration into iOS 5 in 2011, giving developers in the iOS 5 SDK the ability to add Twitter support to their apps and to allow users to easily control whether or not an app has access to post to their Twitter account.

A less successful example is the agreement between Verizon and Color, the app that organized photos by event and location, in May 2012. The newest version of Color was made available exclusively to Verizon subscribers.

Six months later, Color was no more. 

Then there is the latest example: the HTC First phone, available exclusively from AT&T, which came with Facebook's Home user interface preinstalled.

Though no numbers are yet available, there was an ominous sign today: AT&T, which was selling rhe phone for $99.99 has dropped the price all the way down to 99 cents. That cannot be a good sign.

(Image source: https://blog.path.com)