Strong rumours indicated to the world that popular social networking site Facebook is looking to develop its own mobile phone, but these speculations never received any official confirmation. However, now it seems that these rumours of a Facebook phone could prove true, as Mark Zuckerberg’s company has sent out invites on Thursday, March 28th for a big press meeting that will take place on April 4 at the Menlo Park campus of the social site. The invitation loudly says “Come See Our New Home on Android.”
The invite is only an indication of what to expect and it is not for sure that Facebook is really going to announce a mobile phone at the upcoming event, as the vague description on the invites is creating confusion. TechCrunch reported that its sources have said that Facebook might announce a modified edition of Android OS that will run on the smartphone built by HTC:
“Sources tell us it will be a modified version of the Android operating system with deep native Facebook functionality that may live on an HTC handset. This may actually be the Facebook Phone announcement people have been speculating about.”
“One source recently told us to be on the look out for a Facebook mobile press event in early April where the social network would reveal an altered Android OS running on HTC. It’s said not to be a full-on rewrite of Android, but rather a modification that will have all sorts of extra Facebook functionality built in. Imagine Facebook’s integration with iOS 6, but on steroids, and built by Facebook itself. It could have a heavy reliance on Facebook’s native apps like Messenger, easy social sharing from anywhere on the phone, and more.”
On the other hand, the sources of 9to5Google claim that collaboration between HTC and Facebook could give birth to an iPhone-like smartphone that would feature a home button:
“Sources who have seen the Facebook/HTC smartphone hardware in-person say it is reminiscent of an iPhone. It includes an iPhone-like “home button” on the bottom centre, and this button is surrounded by horizontal function keys on the right and left side. These buttons are said to be capacitive.
Above the keys is a display slightly larger in size to the 4-inch display found on the iPhone 5. Recent rumours have pointed to a collaborative Facebook/HTC phone featuring a 4.3-inch display.”
The sources of 9to5Google also revealed that they have seen the marketing material of Facebook and HTC’s campaign and it focuses on a taglines which says that the mobile phone will be “more than just an app.” The tagline actually targets the potential buyers of the smartphone rather than the hardware or software of the device.
Source: iPhoneinCanada
Photo: TechCrunch
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