Facebook will be holding a press conference at 10AM PT tomorrow. There have been many rumors the last week about what Facebook is going to announce. Many believe that Facebook will release a Facebook-branded phone and 9to5Google has just leaked some interface shots of the new phone. It seems that the rumors are all pointing toward the same thing: Facebook is going to announce a phone with tight Facebook integration in the form of a home screen replacement, like Nova Launcher or GO Launcher EX.
While skins from phone manufacturers are nothing new, it’s interesting to see that Facebook will be creating its own skin with a hardware partner. The rumored device will be manufactured by HTC, which makes the Sense UI for its phone. It’s curious whether HTC will modify Sense in conjunction with the Facebook Home home screen replacement or if it’ll be running vanilla Android with Facebook as the only skin (which can be run on any Android device). From the screenshot below, it appears to be the latter.
But why Facebook is doing this remains a mystery. Facebook already has apps for all the major mobile platform so what’s the advantage of creating a specific experience on a single Android device? HTC and Facebook have already tried making a Facebook phone with the HTC ChaCha, which failed miserably so what’s going to make it succeed this time?
Perhaps Facebook is hedging its bets on its strong messaging platform, Facebook Messenger, to provide free messaging and calling for Android and iOS users. Still, this seems like a very weak argument for a Facebook specific phone since there are apps for both platforms that perform the same functions. This will surely make carriers nervous, which Facebook and HTC will need to subsidize the device unless they’re selling it unlocked and off contract.
We’ll have to wait until tomorrow’s event to find out.
Source and image credit: 9to5Google
