Facebook Says It's Not Building a Phone
PALO ALTO, California (
) --
denies a report over the weekend from
TechCrunch.com
that it is building a mobile phone.
A Facebook spokesman told
Reuters
the social networking Web site "is not building a phone." Facebook's current projects include "deeper integrations with some manufacturers."
"Our view is that almost all experiences would be better if they were social, so integrating deeply into existing platforms and operating systems is a good way to enable this," spokesman Jaime Schopflin told
Reuters
.
TechCrunch.com
, citing a source with knowledge of the project, said Facebook is building the software for the phone and working with a third party to build the hardware, just as
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Apple
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does it.
Facebook specifically wants to integrate deeply into the contacts list and other core functions of the phone, and can only do so if it controls the operating system,
TechCrunch.com
reports.
Two high-level Facebook employees -- Joe Hewitt and Matthew Papakipos -- are said to be secretly working on the project, which is unknown even to most Facebook staff. They both have deep operating system experience, according to
TechCrunch.com
.
-- Written by Joseph Woelfel
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