Facebook Puts The Kibosh On FB Smartphone...Or Does It?

by Joshua Gulick — Friday, July 27, 2012, 02:00 PM EDT

Facebook has been fairly dismissive of reports of a Facebook smartphone, but the strongest rejection came yesterday from Mark Zuckerberg, himself. And yet, even with the CEO of the company saying that such a phone "Wouldn't really make much sense to do," analysts and reporters are largely unconvinced that one isn't in the works right now.

Zuckerberg's denial came during the company's earnings report. After suggesting that a Facebook smartphone isn't on the horizon, he took some time to explain what is: namely, turning Facebook into a mobile platform for apps in the same way that Facebook is a platform for apps on the Web. "We want to support a development ecosystem, where other apps can build on top of Facebook," said Zuckerberg.

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Facebook experts are taking Zuckerberg's statement with a heavy grain of salt, and they're quick to point out that his comments don't necessarily rule out a smartphone (designed by another company) that is built from the ground up to be a Facebook-centric device. One way or another, we'll likely find out in a year or so, as most experts agree that the time-frame for an FB smartphone - if there is one - would be about a year.

Tags: smartphone, Facebook, Facebook Phone

Joshua Gulick

Josh cut his teeth (and hands) on his first PC upgrade in 2000 and was instantly hooked on all things tech. He took a degree in English and tech writing with him to Computer Power User Magazine and spent years reviewing high-end workstations and gaming systems, processors, motherboards, memory and video cards. His enthusiasm for PC hardware also made him a natural fit for covering the burgeoning modding community, and he wrote CPU’s “Mad Reader Mod” cover stories from the series’ inception until becoming the publication editor for Smart Computing Magazine. A few years ago, he returned to his first love, reviewing smoking-hot PCs and components, for HotHardware. When he’s not agonizing over benchmark scores, Josh is either running (very slowly) or spending time with family.

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