Facebook smartphone with HTC launching soon

http://9to5google.com/2013/03/28/facebook-smartphone-with-htc-launching-soon-ad-campaign-in-the-works/

by rjvir • 13 years ago

48 58 13 years ago

9to5google.com

gailees3• 13 years ago

Woah! I've been waiting on this for years now. Will be interesting to see how Google reacts...

nivla2• 13 years ago

>Will be interesting to see how Google reacts...

I hope they don't come up with the dumb idea to create a Google+ phone. People tend make irrational decisions when confronted with uncertainty.

Apocryphon• 13 years ago

I was wondering if they were going to build their own OS, to be honest. Maybe they'll fork Android?

colmvp• 13 years ago

"This will be a deeper, forked version of Android rather than a Facebook-ified version of Sense."

gailees3• 13 years ago

Hmm...this could explain why Zuck started encouraging employees to switch to Android.

thewizard252• 13 years ago

Google's going down.

toomuchtodo• 13 years ago

Sure, because when I need information, I think "I'll Facebook it". rolls eyes

drivebyacct22• 13 years ago

Oh look, a third time in as many days that I think new accounts should be read-only.

Mahn4• 13 years ago

Perhaps it's a bit paranoid to say this, but note that we are dangerously close to April 1st.

unclebucknasty2• 13 years ago

I was thinking this exactly. This actually looks like an April Fool's headline/article.

hospadam2• 13 years ago

Personal disclosure - I'm not interested in a Facebook phone in the slightest (mostly for privacy concerns).

I think this is an interesting concept. Let's assume it is in fact a total fork of Android, in essence, a "Facebook Phone". I really think (as big as Facebook is) they will have a hard time with this. I'm not sure there is space for another type of device - even if it is a massive consumer brand.

I get the sense that a lot of people use Facebook for it's utility... but I think it has lost it's "cool factor" with the general public. I can't see a lot of people thinking "man - I really want deeper integration with Facebook!" Isn't the FB app good enough for most people?

EvanKelly• 13 years ago

Don't forget that Facebook owns Instagram as well. My non-tech friends (most of them) use exactly 2 apps regularly on their phones. Facebook and Instagram. I'm not sure any of them would jump at a Facebook branded phone, but I think a phone with Instagram in mind as the key feature (e.g. an awesome camera, integrated filters, not sure what else) might strike a chord with some of my friends.

EDIT: Almost forgot about Vine. That seemed to blow up in popularity in my demographic recently here in Hawaii. if Facebook owned Vine, they would have the holy trinity of apps.

Mahn4• 13 years ago

> if Facebook owned Vine, they would have the holy trinity of apps.

Just for the record, Vine belongs to Twitter, so don't count on that happening any time soon :)

Total_Meltdown• 13 years ago

I honestly don't know anyone who actually likes Facebook. My group of friends and I continue to use it because there just isn't any better way for us to stay in touch at scale on a day-to-day basis, and nobody really cares enough to put up with the fragmentation that moving to a different network would cause. So it's in this weird middle ground of being too important to give up outright, but not important enough to bother actually fixing.

niggler7• 13 years ago

"I honestly don't know anyone who actually likes Facebook."

That's the thing I've never understood. On the one hand, on the nightly news Facebook is discussed as if everyone has an account (and that privacy changes actually matter to most viewers). On the other hand, none of my close friends use facebook.

MatthewPhillips• 13 years ago

We know that people don't like social login buttons because they believe using them will cause stuff to be posted on their behalf. I can imagine the same fear with buying a Facebook phone. "Jill just chatted with Tom, they discussed their sex life."

bsimpson• 13 years ago

Jill's boyfriend is going to be so pissed.

hkmurakami• 13 years ago

A big part of buying behavior for phones is the carrier retail outlets pushing the phones onto potential buyers.

Facebook, like Amazon, is a company deriving revenue from its ads and content (virtual currency, etc). They could afford to sell the phones to carriers "at cost", at which point the carriers will have a HUGE incentive to sell the phones. Now of course, if they sell at 0 margin to the carriers, HTC won't be happy. But HTC is not doing well at all in terms of phone sales, and perhaps they'd be willing to sell the phone to carriers at very low margins (kind of like how LG, lagging in sales and design inspiration, partnered up with Google and sold a device, the Nexus 4, for very very cheap).

In such a case, FB phones could actually sell a decent amount.

kayoone• 13 years ago

I just hope they stay true to the Android core, we dont really need another mobile OS that is based on Android but isnt compatible.

Mahn4• 13 years ago

According to TechCrunch the press invitation says "Come see our new home on Android"; if they were to take Amazon's approach I would expect them to omit mentioning Android completely, so I guess this tells something.

grbalaffa• 13 years ago

I think we've been here before:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwQkU7jLXRY#t=18s

drivebyacct22• 13 years ago

That mockup is fucking ridiculous.

gailees3• 13 years ago

how so?

blairbeckwith• 13 years ago

It's an iPhone 5 with the touch buttons added.

pasbesoin• 13 years ago

Meta and/or OT: I simply don't believe public statements nor PR, any more.

I seem to recall prior FB comments on this (PR or senior executives) being: We're not doing a phone.

So... "strategic" and "protecting our interests" and "must maximize our value" and "timing" and... Lots of arguments for not giving a straight answer prior to this (even if that is "no comment").

However, with all the talk of "corporate personhood" being bandied about, these days, I'm going to choose to treat businesses that do this the same way I'd treat an individual that did so. You lied.

Why, then, should I believe anything else you're telling me?

Again, this is aside from the specific topic of this phone. Nonetheless, I find it pertinent.

k-mcgrady• 13 years ago

From this article they still aren't doing a phone. HTC are doing a phone and Facebook is partnering with them to run a forked version of Android on it, which will obviously be integrated nicely with Facebook.

shmerl• 13 years ago

That's like a Facebook tracking multiplied by carrier tracking? Super big brother %) Who would buy that?

ok_craig• 13 years ago

I thought Open Handset Alliance partners couldn't sell devices running a true Android fork without losing Google as a partner? How will that come into play here?

hospadam2• 13 years ago

I'm pretty sure they (Facebook) will lose the ability to call this an "Android" phone - and clearly they won't be entitled to the Google Suite of apps.

Further than that... I don't think there are any repercussions.

taligent2• 13 years ago

Apart from Maps which is going to be interesting the rest of the Google Suite is easily replaceable.

AnthonyMouse• 13 years ago

Facebook has been known to partner with Microsoft. It's possible that the phone will be full of Bing.

On the other hand, Microsoft is trying to promote their own phone OS, and this phone is clearly DOA if it doesn't run Android apps, but I can't see Microsoft liking the idea of promoting the Android ecosystem.

It's kind of funny actually. You could see how it could make sense for Microsoft and Facebook to work together and create some Facebook Phone running WP8, except they each probably think the other is going to fail and don't want to board a sinking ship.

nivla2• 13 years ago

>Facebook has been known to partner with Microsoft.

Not very likely, given the fact that Windows Phone has yet to receive an official Facebook app. However, design wise the windows 8 tile architecture would be the perfectly suited for Facebook and Instagram. Its all about how you pull it off, but given how buggy and incomplete my Facebook app on Nexus 7 is, I hardly have any faith in FB.

On the side note, they should have partnered with Nokia instead of HTC.

notatoad• 13 years ago

They can't sell devices that use an android-derived OS that isn't android compatible. As long as the phone could still run arbitrary APKs without modification, they're still within the terms of the OHA, and HTC can continue to sell official android devices. You can skin it up so it is unrecognizable, and you can lock it down so it only runs your App Store, you just can't change the fundamentals.

The trouble aliyun/acer ran into a while back was because aliyun actually changed the API, so that it couldn't run android apps. I can't imagine why Ali would have done that, and I can't imagine any reason why Facebook would purposefully cut themselves off from the android ecosystem. I'm sure HTC won't be running afoul of the OHA with this.

unclebucknasty2• 13 years ago

Blech. No privacy concerns here.

This reminds me of a conversation I had with a friend a while back. She called me one day and I noticed that her photo had suddenly begun showing with her contact record on my phone. Thing is, it wasn't a photo from FB or any social networks, or anywhere else obvious that she could recall posting.

Now, we are both pretty tech, so I'm sure if we really wanted to sleuth it out we could have run it down. But, the point was that we are in this online space and it was non-obvious how this photo was being associated with her contact record on my phone.

I can only imagine how many unknown ways FB would get their hooks into someone carrying their phone.

As someone else mentioned, this has to be an early April Fool's joke.

nabaraj• 13 years ago

I think facebook already has what it needs for a smartphone.

Voice and Video: Facebook Video Calling

Messaging: Facebook Messenger

Photos: Facebook instagram

Contacts: Facebook friends

Games: Facebook's online games

jimzvz• 13 years ago

I really wish something like diaspora would replace facebook. Any ideas how to work towards this?

arindone• 13 years ago

get the average person to care?

currently anyone in the world on pretty much ANY device can access, register an account, and connect fast and easy to their nearby friends on Facebook. The FB philosophy is to "make the world more open and connected" , not "help connect relatively wealthy, tech oriented people." Diaspora has a number of <i> significant </i> hurdles it needs to tackle to just be in the conversation:

1) Ease of access from any device -- can some rando in Egypt open up a 'dumb' phone, sign into his account, and enter the political discourse relatively easily? Twitter is getting there on this account, and it's why Twitter is in the conversation.

2) Scale -- currently everyone and their mom (and dad, grandparents, cousins, long-distant alumni friends, etc.) is on Facebook. For a social network to "replace Facebook" in your words, their needs to be a solid value proposition over Facebook that causes huge droves of people to move away or switch. Currently there's little -- maybe privacy controls could be easier to use, but Zuck himself said that users control their data already: "Our philosophy is that people own their information and control who they share it with." Other than that -- why would the average person put in the "activation energy" over inertia to switch, other than "it's shiny and cool?"

In all Diaspora is an interesting project, but it has little differentiating value prop

nickconfer• 13 years ago

I find it flawed logic to think that just because a user loves Facebook they'll love a Facebook phone. Or likewise, because they do not like Facebook, they'll hate a Facebook phone.

The Android phone is not successful because it contained Google search and Google maps. These features existed on other smart phones before Android. Liking products or services made by a company helps introduce consumers faster to a new product line, but it is not a guarantee for success or failure.

dannyr2• 13 years ago

"Come see our new home on Android" to me seems like Facebook is releasing a home screen replacement than an actual phone.

There are a bunch of apps like these such as Nova and Go Launcher.

andyv88• 13 years ago

Maybe a combination of both?

dannyr2• 13 years ago

I just don't see a forked Android mainly because Facebook doesn't have the app ecosystem yet that could replace the default Google apps. These apps will not be available for a forked Android OS.

I think this is the reason why there isn't an Amazon phone yet. For example with Maps, Amazon is still building its Map service.

======

(edit) I guess they could release an Android phone with the Facebook Home Replacement installed by default.

songgao• 13 years ago

John Doe called a friend.

Like · Comment · Share · 2 minutes ago near a Gopher

cederberg• 13 years ago

A Facebook phone makes no sense. So it seems probable that this is just one or two new apps for Android. Similar to their remake of the iOS apps a while ago.

Facebook smartphone with HTC launching soon

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