Does a Facebook Phone Make Any Sense? [Cellphones]

A flurry of rumors circulated today about HTC launching Facebook-branded phones. Considering the source is a British financial rag handed out totally free at train stations without proven record of tech-exclusives, we cry foul.

Why this rumor doesn’t make sense

• CityAM didn’t quote any sources, instead counting on old favorites ” City A.M. has learned” and ” it’s understood…”

• As aforementioned CityAM is hardly known for breaking tech news. Not to discredit a publication for never having made a scoop, it’s unlikely that a free financial paper-in England, no less-that’s handed out at no cost at train stations has the mandatory contacts to dig up a story of this size.

• They’ve changed it now, but CityAM originally described HTC as a Korean company (they’re Taiwanese).

• The object says the phone will ” run on a tweaked version of Google’s Android operating system and should prominently display users’ Facebook messages and news feed on the home screen.” I don’t find out about you, but my HTC Android already does that. Likewise, ” other areas of integration expected include having the ability to call or email friends from information stored on their Facebook page.” Gazing my ” contacts” list now, I will see various my Facebook contacts’ email and call numbers, which I wouldn’t have otherwise.

• The two engineers CityAM claims which are working on the project-Joe Hewitt and Matthew Papakipos-have previously been fingered as working on Facebook-branded phones last September. It wasn’t much of a stretch to align them with some mystery HTC phones.

• It’s more likely that HTC is working on an updated version of Sense, its UI for Android, integrating Facebook-and maybe even Twitter-deeper than we’ve seen previously. Indeed, Facebook spokesperson Jaime Schopflin herself confirmed back in September that Hewitt and Papakipos are already working on projects integrated Facebook into existing OSes, reminiscent of iOS and the INQ Mobile OS.

• We know CEOs lie for all time, but for what it’s worth, Zuckerberg himself said at the Facebook platform event last fall that they’d not be doing a Facebook phone.

Why make a Facebook phone at all?

As Jesse Eisenberg said within the event last year, Facebook is targeted on having access to as many alternative platforms as possible. And thus, they previewed tools for developers to make the strategy of getting users on Facebook (from mobile devices) easier. But why make a phone?

In a method, Facebook is an awful lot like Google. They’re web-based, so the more those that can access their properties, the easier. In this case, Google made a phone of their own. Nonetheless it doesn’t quite make as much sense as for Facebook to do it, because it’s basically already been done.

If you are taking a examine Moto Blur on Motorola’s Android phones, or Palm/HP’s webOS, or HTC’s Sense UI as mentioned earlier, you’ll see that many phone manufacturers have already been integrating tightly into Facebook. That you would be able to post status updates from almost anywhere on the phone. Facebook contacts are seamlessly merged together with your phone’s contacts. Facebook messaging is only an alternative choice in a dropdown menu that comes with texts, IMs and emails while you’re chatting with your folks. And all of your friends have their Facebook photos viewable to the point where your phone just uses their profile picture as your contact photo automatically. It’s all, essentially, a Facebook phone.

So what can Facebook add that these third-party manufacturers cannot? Besides branding-that’s important, don’t get me wrong-Facebook provides tight integration. Maybe a VoIP service where you video chat and voice call through Facebook’s own network, but that’s unlikely inside the realm where so few wireless providers allow or advertise using VoIP freely on a phone they promote.

Other than these features, give some thought to what you’d would like to do on Facebook today so that you can’t already do to your Android/Pre phone. It’s hard to return up with something, isn’t it? That’s an exceptional reason it’s unlikely Facebook will make a phone. Not to mention that while Facebook is growing, they’re not huge yet, and don’t really have the manpower or expertise to plan a whole operating system for themselves. They’ve poached one of Google’s Android leaders to assist them develop on mobile, but if they were dramatically hiring cellphone/mobile OS developers, we’d have heard about it.

Of course, HTC could surprise us all with a pair of Facebook-branded phones at the MWC trade extravaganza next month, nevertheless it’s iffy at best. [ CityAM via TechRadar ]

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