Facebook phone rumors are swirling again, with reports that the company's been hiring smartphone
engineers.
According to the New York Times,
it's taken on several people who
previously worked on the iPhone
or iPad. It quoted a company
employee as saying that founder
Mark Zuckerberg was worried that,
unless the company created a
phone of its own, "Facebook will
simply become an app on other
mobile platforms".
Rumors that the company was
planning a move into creating its
own hardware have been circulating for well over a year, with a release date suggested for some time late this
year or early next.
According to the NYT, the current effort actually marks Facebook's third attempt at building a smartphone. Its first
attempt was abandoned because the company lacked the necessary hardware expertise.
Last year, it was reported to be working on a phone with HTC, codenamed Buffy, and the NYT says this new work
is an extension of that project.
The advantages of moving more into the mobile area are greater than ever, with Facebook concerned that the
small screen of most phones makes them less than ideal for advertising.
Still, building its own phone won't be easy - and the company may still decide that it makes more sense to use
some of the cash from its IPO to buy a phone manufacturer instead: struggling Blackberry maker Research in
Motion could be one possibility, or even HTC itself.
Source: Tg Daily