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Facebook Is Secretly Building A Phone

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Re: Facebook Is Secretly Building A Phone

#31

Post by ThomPete »

dschobel wrote: post #21
ThomPete wrote: post #11

Unless FB are considering making it impossible for others to access it's API, building a phone seems like a better deal for Facebook than it does for it's users.

It's the twitter problem all over again; they want their data and network/platform to be ubiquitous but while reaping all the eyeball revenue from being the frontend of choice and making every other client second-class.

Not to forget Google.

Android is by some metrics a good platform, but I do wonder whether it's going to be the revenue generating channel that they seem to hope it will be.

Re: Facebook Is Secretly Building A Phone

#32

Post by js4all »

Since that "I Like" button campaign, Facebook's target is clear: Google. The mobile sector is not yet fully taken. So it seems logical to hit in that direction, if you have the power and user base like Facebook has.

Re: Facebook Is Secretly Building A Phone

#34

Post by prodigal_erik »

dschobel wrote: post #23
twidlit wrote: post #18

Awesome. Microsoft does search, Google does mobile OS, Apple does social networks, now Facebook does phones. Its an all out tech war.

This is what happens when you staff a company with brilliant "generalist" engineers. Heed the warning folks, hire specialists or your startup will be making phones before you know it!

Every company attempts to expand until it can sell mobile phones. It really seems like a modern variant on Zawinski's Law of Software Envelopment, having displaced the dying medium of email.

Re: Facebook Is Secretly Building A Phone

#35

Post by bruceboughton »

danielrm26 wrote: post #9

The most significant concept the article touched on was the potential to call people rather than their numbers. I think at this point it'll be hard to get beyond what Apple and Google are already doing on that front, however, as they already allow one to call Julie's Mobile. The next stage would have to be calling Julie in a sort of Google Voice type of way, where her location isn't even an issue. At that point you c…

I can't remember the last time I called someone via their number. What a ridiculous statement!£

Re: Facebook Is Secretly Building A Phone

#36

Post by bruceboughton »

c00p3r wrote: post #26

Mobile-device-as-a-service? Why not, half-billion users is enough to try. Like a Kindle just for one kind of activity - reading, it could something like an iPad with only one big app. Seems line the history repeats itself and we're heading back to the future from an era of general web sites in a universal browser to a closed world of connected devices. ^_^

Except the only reason the Kindle succeeds as a single-use device is that an e-ink screen is a significant feature for e-reading (i.e. the hardware is the seller).

Re: Facebook Is Secretly Building A Phone

#37

Post by ludwigvan »

aaronbrethorst wrote: post #3

Assuming this is accurate, I think it makes a lot of sense, especially if it's based on Android. As it is, the bulk of people I see on laptops, iPads and iPhones in cafes are just using them as Facebook devices anyway. They might as well make it official. On another note, if I see or hear the phrase "Web-based operating system" one more time I swear I'm going to lose it. Fine, great, it's a browser-based desktop: tha…

It is probably based on Android if this is true. I remember seeing @joehewitt working on Android. See for example: http://twitter.com/joehewitt/status/20691624768

Re: Facebook Is Secretly Building A Phone

#38

Post by rythie »

twidlit wrote: post #33
joe_the_user wrote: post #17

The thing is, everyone I know uses Facebook the website but hates Facebook the company. I don't see the Facebook brand selling phones (I recall they rated on the bottom of brands in some study).

everyone you/I know = 0.00000001% of Facebook's users.

I would imagine he does have more than 0.05 friends (based on 500 million users)
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