We already have Facebook phones from HTC, Vodafone, Motorola and Huawei, but they are mere Android phones with a dedicated Facebook button and a lot of integration with the social networking site.
However, now Facebook wants to change that. It plans to come up with its own phone, with the social networking site at the core. Contacts, Camera games and applications all will be weaved together so that it works in tandem with Facebook account of the user.
According to All things D, Facebook has tasked HTC, the company that has already got Facebook phones like ChaCha and Salsa, to develop an Android phone for it.
Facebook has codenamed the device as Buffy. However, both Facebook and HTC refused to comment on the development. Facebook currently has 350 million active mobile users globally, and relationships with 475 global mobile operators.
Currently every Android phone is integrated with Google’s service, which offers applications market, contacts backup through Gmail, and advertisements. It is expected that these will be replaced by Facebook’s own services.
Currently there are several games and applications from developers like Zynga which are popular on Facebook and with a dedicated phone, Facebook would like to cash in on the increased scope of integration to earn more advertising revenue and provide its developers and users with one more screen to develop and use its services on.
The phone is still under development and will be available only in next 12 to 18 months.