The Facebook smartphone rumour is back. Again, the reason behind this is an upcoming event of the company.
The social network sent out invitation for a mysterious event to the press. In them, Facebook informs that the event will take place on April 4th, 2013, at the company’s Menlo Park headquarters. The invites also read “Come See Our New Home on Android.” But what could that mean?
The social network is expected to show off a modified version of Google’s mobile operating system Android. The software is believed to have an extra FB functionality that users will be able to access from the homescreens of their smart devices. In addition, the sources of the website also state that Facebook’s version of Android will be included in HTC devices.
Another website called 9to5Google claims that Facebook and HTC have spent some time developing a marketing campaign for the rumoured smartphone. Moreover, the ads are said to pay more attention to the consumer experience and not the specifications of the device like its hardware and software.
HTC and Facebook have already worked together in the past. About two years ago, HTC introduced its Status phone which came with a FB button. Through it, users could directly access the social website.
Also, this won’t be the first time in which a company modifies Android for its own mobile device. In fact, this is exactly what Amazon did when it developed its tablet PC Kindle Fire.
Facebook has been said to be developing a phone many times in the past. Towards the end of last year, for example, the social network again sent out invites for a secret event. However, what the company actually revealed on it was its Search Graph function. Moreover, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, has stated that the social website is not working on a phone or even planning to develop one. Nevertheless, in 2012 he did mention that the company was considering of modifying an operating system.
In addition, lately Facebook seems to focus more and more on mobile applications. Only for the last few months, the company launched a number of products for mobile devices. Among them were also the Messenger app and the Poke app.
Facebook’s event will be held on April 4th (Thursday), at 10am Pacific Time.
