It has emerged today that Facebook IS going to make a smartphone which may be launched next year.
Facebook app
According to a report by The New York Times, smartphone experts have been employed to work on a phone for Facebook. The report goes on to say that this will be the third attempt they have made to produce a phone.
The rumours that Facebook were going to make a phone have been circulating since 2010 and nothing was confirmed however it looks like this is serious news this time.
A Facebook employee said to the New York Times:
“Mark is worried that if he doesn’t create a mobile phone in the near future that Facebook will simply become an app on other mobile platforms”
This update comes as Google spent $12.5 billion buying over Motorola Mobility who could become a competitor for Facebooks’ offering.
We understand that project ‘Buffy’ is still underway and will sit alongside this new venture. Project ‘Buffy’ was a project undertaken with HTC to build a mobile device last year.
The information in The New York Times report came from anonymous employees in Facebook but the company itself has not made an official statement and instead referred the paper to a previous statement it gave last year:
“We’re working across the entire mobile industry; with operators, hardware manufacturers, OS providers, and application developers.”
We will have a little longer to wait until an official statement or idea of what the phone will look like but, with the never-ending patent infringement cases hitting the tech news headlines, Facebook will have to be careful entering the hardware arena.
What do you think about Facebook developing a phone? A clever move or will it be too much for the company?
Related posts:
May 28, 2012
Mobile, Social & Internet