Facebook phone rumors spread across the Internet Sunday. Facebook says it isn’t true. With all the craze over Smartphone’s right now, it would simply make good sense to rival Apple’s iPhone and Android phones for Facebook t hat has 500,000 people to support it. Even though Google has taken over everywhere, there was no success with the Nexus One. Worse things took place for Microsoft with its Kin. Facebook says it is not creating a cell phone although it has looked at Facebook phone possibilities before. Some think that the Facebook cell phone would die off fairly quickly since it wouldn’t be needed by many. Some say Facebook shouldn’t even look into getting its own development platform until its applications can really work on all of the Smartphone’s.
There was one place the Facebook phone story began. That place was TechCrunch. Michael Arrington wrote that Facebook is secretly building software for a phone and working with a third party manufacturer, just like Apple does with the iPhone. A developer in June left the Google Chrome project, and nobody knew why. Arrington thinks he was more interested within the Facebook phone project. He thinks many could be interested in an affordable cell phone for Facebook. The phone would allow users to call their friends’ names rather than their cell phone numbers.
Alarm was fake, says Facebook
Facebook has had lots of rumors spread about this just lately, including the Facebook cell phone. Facebook told CNET that its priority was deeper integration with existing Smartphone’s, not building its own. CNN reports that Facebook is well-known for leaking ideas, however the business either scraps them outright or pursues an entirely different tangent. In 2008 rumors arose about a Facebook music service to compete with MySpace Music, but no such service has yet emerged. “Facebook Wallet,” a proprietary e-commerce product to challenge PayPal, never materialized. A service called Facebook Credits could be added to eBay’s PayPal as a partner with Facebook.
See no competition in Facebook
John C. Abell at Wired thinks there would be no purpose for a Facebook cell phone. The thought of a Facebook cell phone is ridiculous. Abell states it is “the tail wagging the dog”. He is pretty sure that nobody would be willing to give up their iPhone or Android just to get a Facebook phone. Robert Scobe at Business Insider writes that Facebook’s priority should be to develop what is missing from its Facebook apps. He discusses different deficiencies. These include contacts, photos and video. He also thinks that Facebook needs a better platform before moving on. The only thing that Facebook has that other corporations do not have are 500,000 users that check in daily.
Additional reading
Tech Crunch
techcrunch.com/2010/09/19/facebook-is-secretly-building-a-phone/
CNN
cnn.com/2010/TECH/social.media/09/20/facebook.phone/
Wired
wired.com/epicenter/2010/09/is-facebook-planning-a-phone-who-knows-should-they-no/
