[BBB78]

http://m.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/smartphones-could-be-next-on-the-agenda-for-cashedup-facebook-20120519-1yx53.html

Move aside Apple, Android, and RIMM.
is there space for another player in the Smartphone market?

[sam_b77]

I'm just trying to think of a value addition that Facebook phone will bring.
Examine what a phone does:
1) Voice (already there)
2) Data (already there)
3) Navigation (already there)
4) Games (already there)
5) Productivity Apps (already there)
6) Unique UI ( Already one too many in the market)

What will be the USP of a Facebook phone?? Constantly being spied upon?? Who would want that.
Money does not equal a unique product.

[wuulfy]

I'm just trying to think of a value addition that Facebook phone will bring.
Examine what a phone does:
1) Voice (already there)
2) Data (already there)
3) Navigation (already there)
4) Games (already there)
5) Productivity Apps (already there)
6) Unique UI ( Already one too many in the market)

What will be the USP of a Facebook phone?? Constantly being spied upon?? Who would want that.
Money does not equal a unique product.

I suppose they could just team up with an established name and rebrand it.

The official Facebook phone by Samsung for example with an enhanced fb application with options avaliable on home screen. Facebook chat operating independently as a native application.

[pantlesspenguin]

They've tried this once before and it never really took off.

HTC Status review -- Engadget

[sleepngbear]

Facebook does want to get into mobile ... but not that way.

[louzer]

I just don't get it. There is a Facebook app for each of the major players in the cell phone OS's. If Facebook is what you like, then you have a social/messaging tool that is cross-platform and therefore available for anyone to communicate with anyone else.

It's not like Skype, iMessage, or BBM where you can only communicate with people on certain platforms. Facebook functionality is already available across the board.

Unless Facebook has plans to produce a 'free' phone serving up Facebook ads or has another way to increase revenue via their own devices, I don't see this happening.

[sosumi11]

The story goes that ESPN president George Bodenheimer attended the first Disney board meeting in Orlando, Florida, just after the company had bought Pixar, the innovative animation factory, and spotted Apple CEO Steve Jobs in a hallway. It seemed like a good time to introduce himself. “I am George Bodenheimer,” he said to Jobs. “I run ESPN.” Jobs just looked at him and said nothing other than “Your phone is the dumbest idea I have ever heard,” then turned and walked away.

The “dumbest” phone in question is an ESPN branded Samsung flip-phone from 2006.

[addicted44]

Facebook phone = BBM enabled phone but with an even wider social network.

[kevinnugent]

Can you imagine if FB offered each of its users a PIN and a free BBM account to use on their FB rebranded RIM phone? 970m users?

[sosumi11]

Can you imagine if FB offered each of its users a PIN and a free BBM account to use on their FB rebranded RIM phone? 970m users?

Once price (free) becomes a feature, death of the brand follows.

[dtrue05]

dont see a point to a fb phone htc status came out pretty much flopped, i dont see what features fb could bring to a phone that arent already there unless the have all specs of bb10 and the apple iphone5, and they decide to put every feature that 2 are coming up with and then add some

[VanCity778]

what's facebook ?

[kraski]

I just don't get it. There is a Facebook app for each of the major players in the cell phone OS's. If Facebook is what you like, then you have a social/messaging tool that is cross-platform and therefore available for anyone to communicate with anyone else.

It's not like Skype, iMessage, or BBM where you can only communicate with people on certain platforms. Facebook functionality is already available across the board.

Unless Facebook has plans to produce a 'free' phone serving up Facebook ads or has another way to increase revenue via their own devices, I don't see this happening.

You could have a very good point there. One of the early stories on FB's IPO talked about the fact that the present mobile apps didn't allow the advertising the way the full site does. Thus eliminating a revenue stream. A phone focused on FB and designed by FB would most likely change that.

[anthogag]

Facebook is ubiquitous, why ruin that with a phone of their own

A Facebook phone...it just sounds so boring

[BBB78]

Facebook poaching Apple staff for smartphone | smh.com.au

Here's a follow up article

[Premium1]

It will be a flop just like the other fb phones. I think the chacha lasted a whole like 3 weeks on at&t before they pulled it from shelves. FB is grasping at strings after their poor IPO and following days where their stock tanked.

[kbz1960]

Yep just what I want, nope. I could give a rats azz about Facebook but I hear it's pretty popular.

[FSeverino]

maybe they will buy RIM...

[Blackberry_boffin]

The easiest thing to do would be to run with Android or WP7. BB10 would shut them out of people's data which is what they seem to live on.
This does not mean they will see any success.
A whole new device on a whole new platform would be tougher unless it's subsidised by ads.

[sam_b77]

Facebook poaching Apple staff for smartphone | smh.com.au

Here's a follow up article

Here's a follow up to the follow up:
Facebook Phone Is A Bad Idea - Business Insider

Facebook is poaching ex-Apple engineers to build a smartphone, Nick Bilton of the New York Times reports.
This is the third iteration of Facebook's smartphone plans--from hardware to software and back to hardware again.
If Facebook is serious about jumping into making smartphones with both feet this time, Facebook investors should be very afraid.
Why?
Several reasons:
The move would clearly be defensive, not offensive. According to a Facebook employee quoted by Bilton, "Mark [Zuckerberg] is worried that if he doesn’t create a mobile phone in the near future that Facebook will simply become an app on other mobile platforms." Translation: Facebook is doing this because it thinks it has to, not because it wants to.
Hardware is an extraordinarily difficult, low-margin, commodity business. The only two companies that are doing well right now in hardware are Apple and Samsung. Both have been making and selling hardware for decades. Lots of other companies that have been making and selling hardware for decades are cratering, such as Research In Motion and Nokia. Palm already cratered.
The smartphone "platform" business is already dominated by Apple and Google (Android), and there are already a whole lot of also-rans. Amazon has entered the platform game. Samsung may "fork" Android and enter the platform game. Microsoft is desperate to make its new Windows mobile product matter. RIM still has a piece. And so on. If Facebook really wants to build a brand new mobile platform, it will be starting from miles behind the leaders.
Hardware distribution is critically important, and Facebook also faces vast, entrenched competition there. How is Facebook going to get shelf space at the carriers? By offering super-cheap phones? That won't do wonders for its margins. Is Facebook going to build a network of stores? Is it going to try to circumvent carriers? Google already tried that. Didn't work.
Although Facebook might want to be a mobile platform, there's no obvious need for a Facebook phone. There are already a gazillion phones and Facebook is available on all of them as an app or via a browser. Why would anyone want a dedicated Facebook phone, especially if it didn't run all the apps that run on Apple and Android phones?
A full-fledged hardware business would likely radically reduce Facebook's profit margins. One of the advantages of Facebook's current business is that it is extraordinarily profitable. The hardware business would likely make it a lot less profitable (per dollar of revenue).
Facebook knows absolutely nothing about making, selling, or supporting hardware. Really--nothing. Yes, Facebook could use its billions to buy RIM or Nokia, and then it would know something about hardware. But RIM and Nokia are deeply troubled companies that are already cratering. Can you imagine how difficult it would be to buy, integrate, and FIX RIM or Nokia? (Google's about to give us a case study in how difficult it is with Motorola).
That's just a start.
Perhaps Facebook doesn't really have any intention of building a full-fledged phone--perhaps it just wants to partner with someone like HTC or Samsung. But even then, all the same challenges apply.
Facebook already has an "operating system" for mobile--it's called the social graph.
So instead of building a phone, which seems like a desperate move, Facebook should partner with every operating system and carrier and hardware maker it can to try to embed this social platform within every mobile platform. And it should build great apps to float on top of these systems. (And if Apple keeps giving it the brush-off, it should probably start by cozying up to Samsung, which is the only company giving Apple a run for its money).
Yes, everyone wants to be Apple.
But there's only one Apple right now.
And Facebook's chance of becoming the next Apple seems even smaller than Apple's chance to become Apple was.
The fact that Facebook is even thinking of going into the hardware business is a bad sign. If Facebook actually does go into the hardware business, it will be a really bad sign.

[sinsin07]

After reading the Business Insider excerpt above, all I can say is please, please, please let Facebook enter the mobile market with their own hardware.

[anjali_jain]

Will it be called the Facephone or the Phonebook?

[bengalt9]

Well we can call it a FACEPALM

Will it be called the Facephone or the Phonebook?

[hornlovah]

CydiaJailBreak.net leaked a photo : Here is What The Facebook Phone Could Look Like.

[polytope]

Well we can call it a FACEPALM

Running WebOS of course.