OT: Facebook building a smartphone…. – Piggington's Econo-Almanac

This topic has 10 replies, 8 voices, and was last updated 12 years, 2 months ago by Coronita.

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May 28, 2012 at 9:55 AM #19822

Coronita
Participant

I told some of ya folks this was gonna happen….

No way they are going to build a smartphone from scratch in less than 1 year, including the O/S….

So either they’re blowing smoke on the timeline or they’re going to do an acquisition soon.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/28/tech/mobile/facebook-phone/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

Mark Z, just buy Rimm and call it a day….

Seriousness though, I guess android O/S techies just got an extension to the shelf life of this skillset if we get into an out war on Android O/S stock versus Android-modified Kindle versus soon to be Android O/S FB phone + Google TV…

Report: Facebook is making a phone

CNN) — A week after Facebook’s bungled IPO comes fresh news to tantalize, or torment, the company’s investors. The social-networking behemoth may be making a phone.

Facebook hopes to release its own smartphone by next year, according to a New York Times report quoting anonymous sources at the company and others who have been briefed on Facebook’s plans. Facebook has already hired more than half a dozen former Apple engineers who worked on the iPhone, the report said.

May 28, 2012 at 3:21 PM #744434

meadandale
Participant

Our company thinks they are going to be an MVNO (ala Boost or Virgin) in 2 months..starting from scratch.

Just goes to show that the idiots in the board room have no tether to tech reality.

May 28, 2012 at 4:56 PM #744435

Allan from Fallbrook
Participant

From Business Insider: http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-phone-is-a-bad-idea-2012-5

They also think that this is a really, really bad idea.

Say, what happened to that Ron Paul-lovin’ tech genius that was shilling Facebook as the “next Big Thing”? He’s gone strangely silent for some reason…

May 28, 2012 at 5:37 PM #744437

Anonymous
Guest

[quote=Allan from Fallbrook]From Business Insider: http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-phone-is-a-bad-idea-2012-5

They also think that this is a really, really bad idea.

Say, what happened to that Ron Paul-lovin’ tech genius that was shilling Facebook as the “next Big Thing”? He’s gone strangely silent for some reason…[/quote]Who me??? A mistake on the article though:
Apple makes phones, but Google doesn’t. Try HTC, Samsung.
Facebook would not have to ‘fork’ Android.. since HTC and Samsung are both Android based, without having to fork Android itself. Evidently the person who wrote the article doesn’t understand how Android works.

The one thing to note is that with Android, the handset hardware is even more commoditized.

May 28, 2012 at 7:57 PM #744439

enron_by_the_sea

Participant

[quote=markmax33©]

Apple makes phones, but Google doesn’t. Try HTC, Samsung.
[/quote]

Well, as of this week Google makes phones. The Mototola buy was closed last week. (But even before that, they sold G1 and G2 etc.)

[quote=markmax33©]

Facebook would not have to ‘fork’ Android.. since HTC and Samsung are both Android based, without having to fork Android itself. Evidently the person who wrote the article doesn’t understand how Android works.[/quote]

Well they don’t have to fork but they just might choose to do that in order to “differentiate themselves”! Amazon did the same with Kindle Fire.

May 28, 2012 at 9:36 PM #744441

all

Participant

They might use PHP since that worked so well for the website.

May 28, 2012 at 9:41 PM #744442

Hatfield

Participant

I don’t have the balls to short this stock but I can’t wait to see what put options look like.

I suppose they could use their new-found capital to buy a troubled handset maker (RIM, Noky) but I just don’t see a business case for a FB phone.

May 28, 2012 at 9:51 PM #744443

enron_by_the_sea

Participant

[quote=flu]

Seriousness though, I guess android O/S techies just got an extension to the shelf life of this skillset if we get into an out war on Android O/S stock versus Android-modified Kindle versus soon to be Android O/S FB phone + Google TV…

[/quote]

flu, Have you thought about the possiblity of Moto-google also making a fork of Android for their own exclusive use? That would really make this landscape, well, weird ..

May 28, 2012 at 10:27 PM #744444

Participant

[quote=enron_by_the_sea][quote=flu]

[/quote]

flu, Have you thought about the possiblity of Moto-google also making a fork of Android for their own exclusive use? That would really make this landscape, well, weird ..[/quote]
The day they do that is the day all the other OEM switch to WP7/WP8. Why would OEM stick around and have to compete with Google themselves. Which is why MSFT is not creating their own phone or buy NOK. They have more than enough cash to do so if they wanted to. NOK fortune is actually starting to turn around. Albeit slowly. They finally regained the top smartphone position in Finnish. That’s not saying much as a whole, but that’s a good first start for them. I can see MSFT infuse more cash into NOK, to help them turn around if they need to, but I don’t see NOK being bought out anytime soon.

The only platform that FB can buy is either webOS or RIMM. WebOS is open sourced now, so they can totally hijack that if they wanted too. I don’t see how a 4th ecosystem can succeed, especially when they’re competing against 3 companies with very large war chest. GOOG and AAPL are entrenched and MSFT have potential from their PC user base and Windows 8, offering user a tighter integration.

May 28, 2012 at 10:41 PM #744446

Coronita

Participant

[quote=enron_by_the_sea][quote=flu]

[/quote]

flu, Have you thought about the possiblity of Moto-google also making a fork of Android for their own exclusive use? That would really make this landscape, well, weird ..[/quote]

I hope not. If google were to do this, it would most likely drive the other handset makers away. Originally HTC and Samnsung put a lot of resources into android. Then when this mot-google deal was announced, they must have panicked because they started making windows mobile phones too. I feel that was an insurance in case google actually kept MMI and used them as a real competitive threat.

I hope for the android platform’s sake, google uses the motorola asset (aside from the primary purpose of having a patent library to ward of patent fights) as more of a “reference platform” to push this platform forward and get different phone makers to come up with a more unified solution. Not as a vehicle to steal business away from the other handset makers. Having Samsung/Android at the #2 spot in smartphone biz and HTC / LG and a bunch of low cost chinese companies in the market, it’s really needed.

As far as RIMM, I think unless someone like Facebook with an ecosystem buys them, it’s game over.Nokia will probably be bought by microsoft if in the end it can’t stand up on it’s own…

I predict a software that will soon be popular is virtualization software on the mobile phone…

Similar to parallels or virtualbox on the pc, the software will allow a mobile phone to run multiple O/S in a virtualized fashion.

The way things are going, you kinda of need it soon.

It’s already possible for the phone to support multi-booting… Some folks have figured out how to multi-boot a phone on android o/s, ubuntu (yes that’s been done), and multiple versions of it without reflashing.

It’s just a matter of time before someone allows booting one o/s will running inside another host one…

Folks already figured out how to get android o/s running on an iPhone. This asian dude did (no, that’s not me)…

And someone probably is end up creating a hack-in-phone and get iOS running on Android in the future.

May 28, 2012 at 10:52 PM #744447

Coronita

Participant

[quote=AN][quote=enron_by_the_sea][quote=flu]

[/quote]

As much as I think of a FB/Rimm tieup. I don’t see it as a winning combo though… Rimm’s clientele and ecosystem is business communication/secure communications. Facebook’s need is social media, which to me is almost the complete opposite. That said, I think I will pick up a few shares in Rimm, just in case Rimm get’s bailed out… $11/share not that much…

i cant imagine folks wanting a fulltime facebook phone… So I think what possibly facebook can do is come up with a a way to run inside a main/host Android O/S, similar to the way parallels/virtual box works. That way, when it runs inside it’s own sandbox, people like me would be entertained using it without fear of permanently have a FB android/modified phone.
Given the choices, them deciding to use Android O/S as the baseline is the right move. Now comes the tricky part…It’s got to co-exist OEM android installed o/s… Sounds like a fun problem to be working on from an engineering standpoint…

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