Online arm of DIGITALX magazine, the source for news and trends in technology business, gadgets, the Web, government policies, mobile, and social media. Published in Lagos, Nigeria.
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It Looks Like Facebook is Making a Phone and the Phone Will Be Available in 2012
The folks at AllThingsD did some wonderful reporting on a mobile phone being secretly developed by our friends at Facebook. The device is codenamed 'Buffy' and it will be intensely integrated with your Facebook experience - that's apart from making calls, of course.
When asked about it, here's what a Facebook spokesperson said: "Our mobile strategy is simple: We think every mobile device is better if it is deeply social. We're working across the entire mobile industry; with operators, harware manufacturers, OS providers, and application developers to bring powerful social experiences to more people around the world."
Others who are close to those working on the project say Buffy will run a seriously tweaked version of the Android OS which supports HTML5 as an application platform, though it will be very similar to the Facebook iPad app. They also mention that Mark Zuckerberg and his team initially thought of giving the phone out for free and with no contracts, until they realised that it would cost about $700 to make one. Also, the idea of no contract sounded ridiculous to mobile service providers. So now, Facebook, which has over 350m mobile users and 475 mobile operator agreements worldwide, is talking to HTC and Samsung to help bring Buffy to life.
As early as April 2012. Trustworthy sources revealed to Silicon Alley Insider that the HTC model would probably hit the market in Q2 of next year. The Samsung model, said the sources, would likely come later, in Q4 of the same year or Q1 of 2013.
But these hot questions remain unanswered: How exactly will a facebook phone work? What special attraction will it have? And, if Facebook were giving phones away, in which markets? Do you Like the idea of a Facebook Phone?

