Here’s another rumor folks! We heard about this last year, and now City A.M. has reopened the rumor mill about upcoming Facebook smartphones. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO, disputes this rumor as simply not true. Why will this rumor just not die? I believe there may be some truth to this since it was City A.M. that broke the news on the Nexus S, and their contacts may be right once again.
The anonymous sources claim that Facebook has asked HTC to manufacture two phones, which will have Facebook branding and colors. The Mobile World Congress which will run February 14 to 17 in Barcelona, is where these phones are expected to be introduced. One phone will have a touchscreen and the other a QWERTY keyboard. These will run Android OS, remodeled to integrate Facebook’s services (messaging, chat, calling friends).
Leading Facebook employees Joe Hewitt (Firefox web browser), and Matthew Papakipos (Google Chrome web browser) are alleged to be leading the project. Erick Tseng, former Google Nexus One product manager, may also be involved in this project. Tseng has close connections with HTC, so that falls in line with why Facebook may be choosing them for the project.
“Mobile is our primary focus for our platform this year,” Facebook CTO Bret Taylor told an audience of developers at the Inside Social Apps conference in San Francisco.
We’ll soon find out if Facebook really is preparing to launch their own smartphones. After all, Facebook has become the number one most visited site, so should phones appear with their name on them, consumers may go crazy grabbing them up too. Facebook we love you!
Via: Android and Me