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| Image: AllthingsD |
This is not a confirmed report but news sites are buzzing with the news that the rumor is out again. The rumor that Facebook will be building an all new smartphone. This will be a Facebook Phone and will be called Buffy, from Buffy the vampire slayer. There are reports on the internet that a Mobile Phone manufacturer has also been chosen to produce the phone and that would be HTC, who incidently beat out rival Samsung to win the contract. There has been no official announcement from Facebook regarding the phone but the rumor mills are churning.
Now a deeply social phone from Facebook does make some amount of sense but whether it is really going to take users away from their current phones and use the Facebook phone is left to be seen. Facebook does have over 350 million active mobile phone users.
A Facebook spokesperson had this to say to AllThingsD.
“Our mobile strategy is simple: We think every mobile device is better if it is deeply social. We’re working across the entire mobile industry; with operators, hardware manufacturers, OS providers, and application developers to bring powerful social experiences to more people around the world.”
So it sounds like Facebook does want to get into the phone business given that it is a social platform that all other hardware and software manufactures have deep ties with. An official phone from the company could ensure that service providers across various countries would have tie-ups with Facebook and maybe offer a lot of free and add-on services to offer.
The Apple iPhone has Twitter as its main social touch-point and Google has Google+ that has been integrated into Android based phones. Facebook looks like it is keep to get into the game. In Fact the Facebook Phone - Buffy will run on a modified version of Android OS. The release date for Facebook Phone Buffy is set to be as long as 12 - 18 months away.
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