Facebook Phone

[Pete]

So there are rumours a plenty going around about Facebook wishing to "make it own phone".

This baffles me frankly for numerous reasons.

First - what exactly is a "facebook phone"? I mean how would it be different from an iPhone / Android with the FB app?

Second - FB complain they "don't want to be just an app". Well what exactly would they be? Surely the FBph would have to support apps, and therefore, just as "explorer" is another app on Windows and "phone" is somewhat just an app on android, it would not be any different.

Third - FB can't even competently make an app for a phone in the first place and drove everyone potty when they attempted to shoehorn an extra camera app onto android recently.


Therefore, what I can see being more likely is they either want some phone people to improve the quality of their standard app, or they wish to somehow spin out a custom version of android with deeper FB integration and then get someone like HTC to shove it on some hardware. Hopefully better than the htc cha cha and it's lame FB integration.

Also - lulz @ their shareprice.

[madmusician]

I don't think Facebook make any apps for phone, they leave it to the OS manufacturer. On BlackBerry, the Twitter and Facebook apps are built by RIM themselves using the FB and Twitter APIs.

That's incorrect I think - the iOS apps are certainly made by Facebook themselves. They've just released a new 'Camera' app for iOS which streamlines the photo upload process by separating it from the main app, just as they have done with the Messages app previously.

I just can't agree with the statement from Facebook that "we are not an app" - that's exactly what they are! Yes, it's an ecosystem, but a social one rather than a technical one like Apple have. I wouldn't touch a Facebook phone with a bargepole and I've no idea what they're trying to do, tbh.

[Critique]

The idea of a Facebook phone doesn't seem to make any sense at all, really. Unless you were some sort of addict who felt the urge to share everything they did to Facebook, I can't see the need for a dedicated Facebook phone.

Also, I think it's only BlackBerry where Facebook haven't made their own app. RIM also made the Twitter app, etc - surely it's not a good sign when developers won't make their own apps, and you have to make them yourselves?