Facebook Phone a Flop in the Making – Here’s Why:

Rumor has it that one of the next big players to make a name for itself in the Smartphone stakes will be none other than Facebook. Until now an exclusively software company, so many big names in the tech industry are straying toward new territory that Facebook’s move toward hardware development has been interpreted by some as a given

In fact, it had been suggested that Facebook would be teaming up with Taiwanese giant HTC for the appropriate hardware, though this was followed by a report stating quite clearly that Facebook was intent on creating and developing its own hardware in-house. Given the way in which Facebook integration has become a key part of most modern mobile operating systems and handsets, you’d be forgiven for expecting a pure Facebook phone to be a unstoppable success story in the making.

Unfortunately however you would be wrong – and 100% wrong in every possible way at that as according to the latest round of industry reports and chatter, the Facebook phone’s chanced of success would be somewhere between nil and zero.

OS Issues

The list of potential problems Facebook would likely run into along the way is literally too big to spell out, though begins with perhaps the biggest question of all – that being what OS the device would run?

Facebook has over recent years made no bones about the fact that it does not exactly worship Android – to put it mildly – meaning that a Facebook Android phone is unlikely at best. Apple’s iOS is hugely impressive and remains a market favorite, though remains the plaything of Apple and Apple alone.

Facebook is known to be quite cozy with Microsoft and therefore the Windows Phone OS is an option, but with a market share you can count on the fingers of one hand, there is no chance whatsoever that this would work either.

This therefore leaves only two options on the table – a massively modified version of Android such as that carried by the Kindle Fire, or for Facebook to go about creating its own OS. In the case of the former of the two, the Kindle Fire’s version of Android was certainly functional, though lacked the true versatility required to make it a long-term success – as would be the case with the Facebook phone.

And in the case of the latter, trying to gain any favor when up against the likes of iOS and Android these days is literally THE biggest waste of time and money imaginable.

Why?!

Even discounting all of the above, it is difficult not to question why exactly Facebook would ever have the intention of straying away from its known turf and into the hideously difficult to conquer Smartphone hardware market.

The answer? It could be that Zuckerberg and his minions are becoming increasingly dissatisfied with relying on advertising revenue in the face of slightly diminished overall Facebook saturation, but attempting to go it alone and slowly enclose the Facebook ecosystem is dangerous at best, hideously ill-advised at worst.

Ties Severed

There has already been talk of Facebook snagging former Apple engineers to work on its own-brand Smartphone, which is something that will probably not resonate all that well with the Cupertino company. True, they’re probably as worried about Facebook’s success as they are of the HP TouchPad suddenly usurping the iPad’s sovereignty, but the fact that they are attempting to distance themselves in such a way must at least niggle a little.

After all, Apple has only just announced that its latest and greatest iOS 6 platform for the iPhone 5 will feature the deepest Facebook integration yet – surely not a good time to be rocking the boat and burning bridges?

A Bleak Prospect

In order to make any headway in the Smartphone market today, you need to offer something bigger, better, more user-friendly and ideally cheaper than your rivals – period. Key players the likes of Samsung and Apple have the kinds of development teams and supply chains the rest can only dream of, which is exactly why they are able to come out on top after so many years.

Facebook on the other hand would be starting from scratch, therefore even with a handful of ex-Apple engineers leading the charge, they would have nothing close to the allies required on a global basis to build and launch a high-end Smartphone capable of competing.

I’d also like to know exactly what a Facebook phone could possibly do that an iPhone 5 with Facebook integration couldn’t.

I’m guessing not much.