Here We Go With the Facebook Phone Rumors Again

If the world came to end tomorrow because of a nuclear war, all that would remain are cockroaches and Facebook phone rumors. Lighting up more speculation on the latter, Facebook has started inviting members of the press to an event at its headquarters on April 4. It's headlined, "Come See Our New Home On Android."

That doesn't necessarily mean a smartphone is in the works -- especially after Mark Zuckerberg recently went on record saying he has no interest in building such a device -- but according to TechCrunch's un-named sources, that's going to be the big reveal. Well, sort of.

HTC Facebook

The sources say Facebook will unveil a modified version of Android with native Facebook functionality on the homescreen, and that it will be demoed on an HTC handset. So, it's not going to be the "Facebook Phone," but a Facebook phone. The social networking site may end up calling its custom Android build "Facebook Home."

This seems plausible to us because it falls in line with Zuckerberg's comments about not wanting to build an official Facebook phone while still tapping into the obvious demand for accessing the social networking site from a mobile device. This could be the reason why Facebook commissioned a survey by International Data Corporation in which it was revealed that accessing the social networking site is the third most popular activity on smartphones.