Facebook: We Are Not Building a Phone
mashable.com
mashable.com
Lets face it, TC is a tech tabloid and HN's fascination with TC (majority story makes FP) is akin to teenager's fascination with celebrity gossip magazine.
No substance, nothing insightful, just pure unadulterated BS. And HN is all over it, every-time.
It's the only credible source of leaks that I pay attention to. They're actually on the pulse of the tech industry, unlike say Wired or Gizmodo or whatever, that don't really report anything original of worth.
I think you mean "startup news" (which is open to debate). AFA actual "Tech news" is concerned they regurgitate whatever link they stumbled upon on their RSS feed and rewrite the whole thing often without bothering to even cite original source.
It boggles my mind that anyone would even consider TC "pulse of tech industry".
"...no one actually thinks Facebook is building an ACTUAL phone, or that it's manufacturing anything.
What people are saying is that Facebook is doing some major work with Android software to make it a Facebook-flavored platform, so Facebook could have much more control over the mobile industry than it does today. This is probably being done entirely inside Facebook, without any help from Google, which is the enemy.
And I don't see any denial of that in Facebook's statement -- just that the company admitting that Facebook is "integrating deeply into existing platforms and operating systems," which is the story in the first place."
So yeah, seems plausible that the PR spokesperson was just putting up interference.
I can't find any explicit denials by Apple, though. Digging through some 2005-2006 news archives, I find Apple denying some specific rumors, but neither confirming nor denying whether they would come out with a phone in general.
"People don't read anymore": http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2008/01/steve-jobs-peop/
I'm pretty sure Jobs was quoted at some point shooting down the idea of an Apple phone, but it's nearly impossible to Google for that amid the Antennagate results.
However if Facebook perceive Google as their biggest competitor it would make sense for them to explore ways to have more control over how Android users access their services.
If Android does become the dominant smartphone platform, controlled by Google, then it could be used as an effective weapon against Facebook - or a way for Google to (finally) launch a successful social service. Its logical for Facebook to try and mitigate this business risk.
Whether that means FB branded phones, deals with carriers for preferred placement or access, or something else is hard to say.