Facebook refuted rumors that it was working with HTC on two new branded phones to be unveiled at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next month. According to Dan Rose, VP of Partnerships and Platform Marketing, this rumor arose from a manufacturer’s attempt to use the social network’s API in a novel way. He unabashedly denied the circulating rumors by stating, “The rumors around there being something more to this HTC device are overblown.” When asked if there is a Facebook-branded handset, he answered with a very definitive, “No.”
The idea of a Facebook phone has been floating around for a while. Before the recent HTC rumors, manufacturer INQ was rumored to be working with the social network on a handset that would debut on AT&T. Despite these occasional rumors, Facebook continues to deny that it is working on a phone. The social network insists that while it may want to be on a lot of phones, it does not want branded hardware. Rather than its own handset, the social network is supportive of mobile development and is opening its API to a variety of manufacturers and platforms.
Several mobile operating systems have taken advantage of this open API and have tightly integrated the social network into their underlying architecture. Motorola’s Android skin Motoblur and HTC Sense’s UI both offer Facebook integration. Windows Phone 7 also taps into the social network and uses it People’s hub to download status updates into the handset’s address book.
[Via Reuters]