Facebook, the world's largest social media network, is today entering the mobile handset space with the unveiling of what it calls its "new home on Android", at a press event at its Menlo Park headquarters, in California.
Rumours of a Facebook phone started doing the rounds earlier this year, but the social network hosted a big press event, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg dismissing all claims of its development, saying "it's so clearly the wrong strategy for us".
That strategy has seemingly changed, with reports and speculation of the development of a Facebook Android-powered phone, in partnership with HTC, doing the rounds over the past few weeks. Facebook's adapted version of the Android operating system is to be called "Facebook Home". According to engadget.com, the HTC, to be called the "First", is a midrange handset powered by a dual-core Snapdragon processor, with Android 4.1.2.
Re-writing Android
There has been speculation that Facebook would completely alter the Android operating system and make it its own - similar to what Amazon did with Android on its Kindle Fire tablet.
However, reports on techcrunch.com suggest it will merely be a modified and re-skinned version of the Android operating system, with Facebook functionality.
Facebook widgets and features would be at the centre of HTC's home screen, allowing users to update their profile and view messages from the home screen.
While Facebook might decide to use Android as a backbone operating system and do away with its applications, Google created the operating system as an open platform, allowing it to be shaped and utilised as mobile developers chose.
According to results from the latest Kantar Worldpanel ComTech survey, for the three-month period up to February 2013, Google's Android increased its share of smartphones sold by 5.8%, compared to the previous year, and was responsible for 51.2% of all smartphone sales.
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