Facebook Friends HTC for Phone Making

It is actually happening-- will the market "like" it? According to AllThingsD, Facebook is entering the mobile arena with a smartphone carrying the social network at its very core.

Facebook PhoneWho will make such a phone? Taiwan's HTC, a recent choice on Facebook's part. Samsung was also being considered as potential hardware partner, apparently. 

Code-named after TV vampire slayer Buffy, the phone will run on (surprise?) Facebook-modified Android. According to All Things D sources, "Buffy" Android will also support HTML5 and might be too deeply customised to run regular Android apps (demanding an alternative Facebook app store). 

AllThingsD says the Faacebook phone will only hit the market in 12-18 months' time-- but Business Insider differs, and insists the launch "might come much sooner than that," on Q2 2012. Even if "not everyone close to the project is optimistic" the Facebook phone will manage to hit the market. 

Business Insider also has another interesting snippet (always, of course, if its sources are to be trusted). Facebook had plans of designing "Buffy" in-house and giving it away for free as an ad-supported product-- before realising each phone was going to cost $700 to make. 

"Buffy" is not the first Facebook foray into mobile-- HTC already has phones carrying a dedicated Facebook button (the Salsa and ChaCha) while Orange will launch 3 Facebook-centric phones in European and African markets in Q4 2011. 

Facebook might have social network appeal, but will it actually have a say in the mobile arena? Perhaps, but probably Apple and Google will just prove too big for even a plucky ex-cheerleader turned vampire slayer to defeat. 

Go The Facebook Phone: It's Finally Real (AllThingsD)

Go Facebook Phone Might Come As Soon As April 2011

Go Facebook Wanted to Give the Facebook Phone Away for Free (Business Insider)

Go Orange Launches Range of Phones With Dedicated Facebook Functionality