Are the Rumors About a Facebook Phone True—And Will It Live Up to Its Competitors?

The rumor mill on Tuesday focused on the social-networking company’s attempts to create a phone—but would a device by Facebook even be worth buying?

Photo: Dan Lyons

Dan Lyons weighs in below.

Why on earth does Facebook want to create a Facebook-branded phone? That’s what you may be wondering after learning that the social-networking company is in the midst of developing a “Facebook phone” that will run a version of Google’s Android operating system and be manufactured by HTC, a leading Android phone maker. According to All Things Digital, which broke the Facebook phone story, this device even has a cute codename—it’s called Buffy, as in the vampire slayer. The identity of the vampire to be slain by this Buffy remains unknown.   

Photo: Daily Beast 

But why is Facebook doing this? Facebook claims to have more than 800 million active members, including 350 million who connect via mobile devices. So why not just create Facebook apps that can run on every phone out there? Facebook won’t say. They won’t even confirm they’re making a phone. They put out a statement saying mobile is important to them and that “every mobile device is better if it is deeply social.”

According to All Things Digital, Facebook originally intended to create its own phone from the ground up, with its own integrated hardware and software. That project must not have worked out, so now Facebook is pursuing a less ambitious Plan B, where HTC makes the phone and Facebook software is tightly integrated into the operating system.  
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Source:  Daily Beast