Facebook Tries Again On Releasing a Smartphone

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Fresh off its debut on Wall Street, it looks as though Facebook is having another go at developing its own smartphone. It would be Facebook’s third attempt at such a mobile device, as the software and social networking giant already has in their employment a number of key software and hardware engineers from Apple who worked on the iPhone and iPad. What makes this attempt different than the previous two, is that Facebook has a better grasp on the task at hand, and now has a much larger, and carefully groomed team of knowledgeable engineers working on the project — all of whom have had prior success developing mobile platforms. As a publicly traded company, Mark Zuckerberg is perhaps feeling the need to find new avenues for growth and penetration. Could the third time be the charm for a Facebook phone?
Zuckerberg is probably also looking to potentially fully integrate people into Facebook (like we already aren't). Lets say you buy a Facebook phone, their "software" ..or whatever you may want to call it will probably be the only thing you'll know. However, it'll make the possibility for users to change much harder. Let's say myspace had made a myspace phone, during the high times of myspace(and the key to this is for it to actually catch on) ..but lets say during that time, we all bought the myspace phone, we all would've been so submerged into myspace that most would've probably not switched to Facebook (if myspace would've cleaned up a bit too). 


Facebook is looking to do this and if it catches on, it might be hard (virtually impossible) for any social networking site to actually ever replace Facebook. However, the problem lies with
Facebook as a brand doesn't click "phone." It sounds sort of unnatural to me. When people hear Facebook, especially as the makers of their phone, it places (at least subconsciously) a sort of restriction on their phone. Probably a bunch of Facebook applications, etc. Not necessarily true, but the idea alone is enough for people to be turned away from it. No one wants a phone that would restrict change. What if i would like to switch back to Friendster? I'm sure there are apps for it, but using Friendster (or anything else social)  full-time on my Facebook phone sort of creates a  natural parallel that seems just off. I'm definitely no expert, but as a consumer, I would say it would be smart for Facebook ..before doing anything as far as a phone or even OS (which should be their first target if they plan on world domination) goes, is establishing themselves as more than a social networking website. Which is probably incredibly difficult given Facebook's fame, impact on social-life and the simple fact that it is a social-netwroking site. But establishing this would be the best thing that they could do for this new (3rd time) venture. 


There's a good reason you don't buy clothes from Coca-Cola. There's also a good reason you don't buy cola from Foot Locker. 


I say they create a new division/group/company if they're looking to enter this market successfully. A completely different name but the same heads working at it. They have all the resources they need, so there really isn't any need to worry about the product not being put out there properly. They need to just make a quality product and work for the best.