Time is the essence for making a product successful and right product at right time will only help you even if you are billionaire social networking legend Mark Zuckerberg.
Facebook has allied with Taiwan’s HTC to build a customized smartphone powered by Google’s Android mobile operating system, according to technology blog All Things Digital. The project, code named “Buffy”, is aimed at making a handset tailored for the California-based social networking site. This device is in the making for the last few years and will take another 18 months to hit the market.
But by the time Facebook would come out with its smartphone, Apple’s new and revamped iPhone 5 must have already hit the market and another set of smartphones having Google Android with Ice Cream Sandwich. It appears by that time Facebook smartphone will be termed as late entrant and may not get the type of acceptability which it founder is anticipating at this stage.
However, the plus point for Facebook is that it is the king of internet in social communications and it has users base of 800 million. Most of the users of Facebook, spend their time on desktops and laptops and remain connected to their friends. The natural graduation for majority of users would be smartphones which offers opportunities that are either smaller or not present at all on PCs, such as the ability to connect with friends directly via voice, text and video, without having to know where (or on what device) their friends are. It could directly integrate video chat, perhaps extending its existing relationship with Skype.
But the key to success for Facebook phone would be what this phone would do, as compared to other phones already on the market. Microsoft’s Windows Phones already have some pretty tight Facebook integration, while Apple’s iOS and Android itself offer all the basic Facebook applications. They can only be successful if they come out with smartphone as fast as possible otherwise they will miss the bus of smartphone.
A Facebook spokesman declined to comment directly on the “Buffy” project to Things Digital but 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, hardware manufacturers, OS providers, and application developers to bring powerful social experiences to more people around the world.”
