Imagine (10 years ago) being able to use an FB version of Siri/Alexa to "connect me to that girl Megan from my 5th grade classroom". Sure sounds compelling.
Instead FB released a half-assed "dailer app/widget" and forgot about it. Today that window of opportunity closed.
if you only look at the tech then yeah it's compelling. but in reality it's creepy and people don't want it.
Why would that have gone any better for them than it went for Amazon and Microsoft?
Because it's really hard to make good hardware cost-effectively. The only companies that have succeeded in the phone market are practiced hardware companies, except for one software company that focused on making a adaptable OS for hardware companies to use.
I agree that fbs value was/is the social graph. But you’re saying that there was a lack of voice UI? Or lack of a capable mobile experience? I don’t see how any of that could have been more than marginally helpful in reducing the friction of adding a friend on a social network.
Microsoft and its phone story is enough to explain why.
Facebook needs a new platform that they control themselves and Phone is D.o.A because they have to compete with other companies (Apple, Google). Nobody wants to have 2 phones and nobody wants yet-another-Android phone "just for Facebook".