Can software companies build their own mobile Facebook or will give answers

As one of the most popular social-networking giants in recent years, Facebook is drawing the attention of industry and users.

At the same time, whether a software company can build its own smartphone has been a nagging topic, and recently Facebook may have given us its own answer.

Last week, Google officially announced the completion of its acquisition of Motorola Mobility, the acquisition of 12.5 billion dollars, which will enable search engine Google to develop its own smartphone. But there is also a software company that may enter the hardware game: Facebook.

Facebook plans to push smart phones next year

Facebook employees and some engineers who have contacted Facebook recruiters, and people familiar with Facebook's plans, say Facebook plans to launch its own smartphone next year. These people are only willing to disclose the information anonymously, fearing that the news could harm the company's relationship with Facebook.

Facebook has recruited more than 5 Apple software engineers and hardware engineers who have worked for the iphone and one for the ipad.

This may be the third time Facebook has tried to build a smartphone, a source and a person contacted by a recruiter said. In 2010, TechCrunch reported that Facebook was developing smartphones. When the company understood the difficulties, it gave up. Late last year, AllThingsD reported that Facebook and HTC are partnering to develop smartphones, code-named "Buffy", which is still continuing.

Now, Facebook plans to step up its efforts to expand the Buffy project and look for other smartphone projects, creating an experienced hardware team that has previously developed devices.

Facebook does not confirm not to deny

An engineer who worked at Apple before, developed an iphone, said he would have met Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, when Zuckerberg asked many questions about the internal work of smartphones. ' It doesn't sound like a momentary curiosity, ' the engineer said. Zuckerberg asked a lot of details, including the type of chip used. A former Apple hardware engineer was recruited by Facebook executives who were told of Facebook's hardware plans.

Facebook did not deny or confirm the report in Friday, citing a previous statement saying: "We work with the entire mobile industry to work with operators, hardware manufacturers, OS providers, application developers." ”

Zuckerberg fears Facebook could become a platform for other applications

For Facebook, the motivation is pretty obvious. As a new public company, Facebook needs to find new sources of revenue, and it is worried that it is lagging behind in its moves, one of the growth areas it has promised.

One Facebook employee said: "Zuckerberg is concerned that Facebook could become a simple program on other mobile platforms if Facebook is unable to build a mobile phone anytime soon." ”

Facebook has been secretive about mobile-phone projects, and it has not listed the jobs on its recruiting website, but has come in to find the right person. But can a social networking site learn to make hardware? Mixing hardware culture with software engineers is tantamount to mixing oil with water. Other handset makers are not good at it, except Apple.

Some of the biggest companies in the consumer electronics industry have been frustrated, such as HP and Dell. Sony is also not successful in mobile phones.

"Manufacturing does not mean entering," said Hugo Fiennes, a former Apple hardware manager, faience. Making small changes to smartphones could completely change the antenna's operation. You wouldn't know it if you hadn't done it for a while. "It's quite complicated to get into the phone business," he added. ”

Facebook also has its own hurdles, which are obstacles to its own business. For example, Twitter is fully integrated into the iphone, and people can seamlessly send Twitter messages with pictures and links. Facebook has not been integrated into iOS because of a dispute with Apple.

Facebook already has an operating system

A Facebook employee says the phone plan has been restarted because Facebook wanted to build it. Then Facebook learned to ask someone with experience in mobile phone manufacturing to come in. So, it started recruiting hardware engineers and working with handset manufacturers to design the appearance, form, and internal way of working, creating Facebook phones.

Despite the difficulties, Facebook appears to have found a way to enter the smartphone market. It already has a complete operating system that can integrate information, calendars, contacts, videos, and a program store with thousands of popular programs. There are also 1 billion of dollars in the acquisition of Instagram procedures.

If its own engineer team fails, it may buy a smartphone manufacturer. Through the IPO, it financed 16 billion dollars. It could buy a downward-looking firm rim, which valued at least 6 billion dollars, and then put Rim's phone on a beautiful Facebook system. HTC is in a muddle, it's worth 11.8 billion of dollars, and it's getting cheaper.

In the smartphone market, Facebook has no need to challenge Apple. Instead, it will turn into Facebook versus Google, which owns the Android operating system, and two companies compete for a large number of low-end smartphone buyers.

"When you provide an ad-phone, you can target users who are prepaid and sensitive to communications," said Carolina-Milanese, Vice general manager of research at Gartner market research firm. "It's a huge market," said Milan, "and two companies can use Amazon's approach to offer low-cost hardware, like the Kindle, to subsidize some costs through advertising."

After all, Facebook and Google both earn revenue through advertising. If they have the opportunity to display ads to people on smartphones, the only thing left is to get the machines running.