Facebook to make its own smartphone by 2013
FACEBOOK is working on plans to build a smartphone, and it is recruiting experts who worked on Apple's iPhone and iPad to help in its quest, New York Times reports.
The plan is driven by founder Mark Zuckerberg's insistence that the social networking giant does not get left behind in the lucrative and growing area of mobile development.
Facebook's recent launch as a public company has made the need for new sources of revenue even starker.
"Mark is worried that if he doesn't create a mobile phone in the near future that Facebook will simply become an app on other mobile platforms," New York Times quoted a Facebook employee as saying.
The newspaper said that one engineer who formerly worked at Apple and worked on the iPhone said he met with Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's chief executive, who then peppered him with questions about the inner workings of smartphones. It did not sound like idle intellectual curiosity, the engineer said; Zuckerberg asked about intricate details, including the types of chips used, he said. Another former Apple hardware engineer was recruited by a Facebook executive and was told about the company's hardware explorations.
According to CNET, Facebook, for it's part, didn't confirm or deny Bilton's assertion that a smartphone project is under way, but rather referred him to a statement it had earlier given All Things D. "We're working across the entire mobile industry; with operators, hardware manufacturers, OS providers, and application developers."
FACEBOOK is working on plans to build a smartphone, and it is recruiting experts who worked on Apple's iPhone and iPad to help in its quest, New York Times reports.
The plan is driven by founder Mark Zuckerberg's insistence that the social networking giant does not get left behind in the lucrative and growing area of mobile development.
Facebook's recent launch as a public company has made the need for new sources of revenue even starker.
The newspaper said that one engineer who formerly worked at Apple and worked on the iPhone said he met with Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's chief executive, who then peppered him with questions about the inner workings of smartphones. It did not sound like idle intellectual curiosity, the engineer said; Zuckerberg asked about intricate details, including the types of chips used, he said. Another former Apple hardware engineer was recruited by a Facebook executive and was told about the company's hardware explorations.
According to CNET, Facebook, for it's part, didn't confirm or deny Bilton's assertion that a smartphone project is under way, but rather referred him to a statement it had earlier given All Things D. "We're working across the entire mobile industry; with operators, hardware manufacturers, OS providers, and application developers."
