Facebook Building Sociality Into A Phone OS?

Arrington reports rumors about Facebook’s plans to build a mobile phone, in which the social features of their platform are lowered into the operating system for the device:

Facebook Is Secretly Building A Phone

Specifically, Facebook wants to integrate deeply into the contacts list and other core functions of the phone. It can only do that if it controls the operating system.

[…]

So what might this phone look and feel like? We don’t know yet. When will it be announced? Don’t know. But I’d speculate that it would be a lower end phone, something very affordable, that lets people fully integrate into their Facebook world. You call your friend’s name, not some ancient seven digit code, for example. I’d imagine Facebook wanting these things to get into as many hands as possible, so I’d expect a model at a less than $50 price. Pay your bill with Facebook Credits. Etc.

I’ve been nattering about the coming merger of social applications and the operating systems of the near future (see Blogtalk 2010: Notes And Thoughts On The Social Future, and (Social) iTunes In The Cloud?).

Obviously, Facebook isn’t going to sit on the sidelines and wait for Apple and Google (and maybe Microsoft) to streak ahead in what will prove to be a critical battle for software dominance, and a turning point in computing.

Facebook’s motivation is dead-on; they are strategically challenged in their dreams for world domination by their lack of an O/S, and mobile is the place to develop innovative O/S’s now.

related articles

• Facebook Is Secretly Building A Phone (Michael Arrington/TechCrunch) (techmeme.com)
• A Facebook Phone? [Facebook] (gizmodo.com)
• Rumor: Facebook Is Forging Its Own Mobile Handset and OS (thenextweb.com)
• Facebook’s Sneaky Plan To Win Mobile Without Building An OS (businessinsider.com)