Facebook joined hands with HTC to produce the HTC First smartphone back in April this year to give users an Android-based device that comes with a pre-loaded Facebook interface. However, the social networking website failed to impress both critics and customers with the HTC First smartphone. The handset not only lacked a decent display, camera and removable storage, it also had poor reception for Facebook Home. As a result of that HTC First was finally declared a failed attempt. However, it seems that Mark Zuckerberg and company are not completely disappointed with their effort to make a Facebook branded smartphone and according to the latest speculation the social networking site has decided to produce a new smartphone in association with a new manufacturer. And the name of that alleged smartphone maker is Samsung, as rumours have indicated that the CEO of Facebook has taken a plane ride to South Korea last weekend in order to meet with several executives from the South Korean company.
The reports also claimed that during this meeting with Samsung executives, Zuckerberg has supposedly discussed the working on the next “Facebook-friendly” smartphone. However, according to the reports Samsung discarded Zuckerberg’s idea of producing the next Facebook smartphone. Mentioning the reason behind disapproval a source said that, “Samsung doesn’t want to help nurture a second Google, which is now becoming a formidable rival for Samsung in the handset business.”
Nevertheless, this was not the only reason because of which Samsung did not accept Zuckerberg’s offer, as the company also quoted the recent failure of HTC First smartphone in order to stay away from the Facebook phone market. But so far nothing is official, as both the companies have not confirmed these reports. However, in case these reports prove true then, it would be a good decision by Samsung because the producer of Galaxy smartphones is already working on its own Tizen OS and recently it has joined hands with Mozilla to produce Firefox-based smartphones for the company.
Apart from this, Samsung is already producing low to high-end Android-based smartphones that are really doing well in various markets across the globe. Therefore, currently there is no need to engage with Facebook, as previous reports have also shown that pre-loaded Facebook Home smartphones did not have demand from customers. In fact, HTC’s previous handsets with a dedicated Facebook key also failed to do well.
Source: 9to5Google
Photo: PhoneArena
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