Third Time is the Charm: Facebook Recruits Apple Employees to Build Phone
By David Tobia
May 29, 2012
May 29, 2012
“This past week, Google completed its acquisition of the hardware maker Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion, which could lead to the search giant making its own smartphone,” reports The New York Times. “But another software titan might be getting into the hardware game as well: Facebook.”- The article cites anonymous Facebook employees, engineers and individuals briefed on the company’s plans in suggesting that Facebook hopes to launch a phone by next year. This would be Facebook’s third effort to manufacture its own phone.
- According to NYT: “The company has already hired more than half a dozen former Apple software and hardware engineers who worked on the iPhone, and one who worked on the iPad, the employees and those briefed on the plans said.”
- The article suggests Facebook is motivated by its recent decision to go public, and that “as a newly public company, it must find new sources of revenue.” However, critics note the difficulty in mixing software and hardware knowledge as one reason Facebook’s phone aspirations may fail.
- If Facebook’s phone plans fall apart, it could consider using some of the $16 billion it raised during its recent IPO to acquire an established smartphone maker such as Research in Motion or HTC.
- Facebook’s phone is speculated to challenge Google in the market of lower-priced smartphones rather than taking on Apple. Since both Google and Facebook specialize in acquiring advertising revenue, they can subsidize their phones’ costs by displaying ads on the smartphone screens.
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