Work On Facebook Phone Denied

Facebook Smartphone

Bloomberg recently hinted at the possibility that a Facebook phone is already being developed and is scheduled to be available in the middle of next year. Earlier reports had already hinted at the possibility that Facebook will be releasing its own handset.

The supposed Facebook phone will reportedly be produced in collaboration with HTC although no other information was released by the news agency.

However this was denied by Mark Zuckerberg in a conference call where the earnings of the company for previous quarter were released. He said that producing a Facebook phone does not make sense for the company, which is focused on enhance the experience of its increasing number of users.

Zuckerberg indicated that Facebook is currently the most-used application on practically all mobile platforms and the company aims to offer applications that are well-integrated into the systems. He added that the company intends to support an ecosystem which allows other apps to be built on top of Facebook.

There are numerous things that the company has to work on and it does not include the production of a Facebook phone.

Despite this, reports on the possibility that a Facebook phone is already on its way have continued to emerge. Bloomberg indicated that the Facebook phone will feature a modified operating system and will be launched into the market next year.

However the interest in entering the hardware market is quite strong with Google being one of the tech companies to introduce their own smartphone and tablet offerings. Microsoft and Amazon have also developed their own products that compete with their own hardware partners.

But Zuckerberg appears to be firm in saying that the Facebook phone is not in the plans of the company. In spite of this, speculations continue to emerge on the possibility that the company will release their own handset into the market.

Facebook Smartphone May Be Unveiled Next Year

Facebook Smartphone

The so-so performance of Facebook in the stock exchange did not seem to affect the company as recent reports have hinted at the possibility that the company will be releasing a smartphone by next year. According to anonymous sources, a Facebook smartphone is reportedly is in the future plans of the social networking company.

The sources were reportedly Facebook employees, engineers and individuals who had an idea on the plans of the company. Reports have indicated that at least six former employees of Apple were hired by the company who will likely work on the reported Facebook smartphone.

These former employees of Apple were reportedly hardware and software engineers who were involved in development of the Apple iPhone as well as the iPad.

The supposed Facebook smartphone calls to mind earlier reports where the company was supposedly planning on producing a Facebook smartphone last November. Earlier reports hinted at a Facebook smartphone that will integrate the social network into the core of the device and was given the codename ‘Buffy’. HTC was supposed to produced the Facebook smartphone last November, which was supposedly going to be introduced in the third quarter of this year.

During the 2011 Mobile World Congress, two smartphones, which featured a dedicated Facebook button, were introduced by HTC, the HTC ChaCha and the HTC Salsa. The HTC ChaCha was later released as the HTC Status.

According to recent reports, the ‘Buffy’ project was expanded by the company as it created a team of engineers who have experience in developing devices. One of the engineers in the team that will supposedly produce the Facebook smartphone was a part of the team that worked on the Apple iPhone. The engineer was able to meet the head of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, who asked him questions about a smartphone.

For the moment no statements were issued by Facebook in connection to the reports of a possible launch of a Facebook smartphone since the company does not make comments on speculations and rumors.