Facebook in 'third attempt' to build own smartphone

squadMCU — Fri, 08 Oct 2021 04:53:01 GMT

Current Revision posted to Documents by squadMCU on 10/8/2021 4:53:01 AM

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

Tags: android, facebook, Design, smarthphone_app, smarthphone, communication