Facebook Preparing For Mobile Hardware Battle?

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Reports are coming hot and heavy this Memorial Day weekend, that Facebook is reinvigorating it’s “Facebook Phone”. Business Insider and the New York Times are staying on top of the story.

According to SAI (sourced to the New York Times) Mark Zuckerberg is personally vetting engineers to join the Facebook team. According to reports he has several iPhone engineers and even an iPad engineer making the shift from Cupertino to Menlo Park.

Zuckerberg has been apparently asking all kinds of tough questions of his new Facebook Phonre recruits, including what chips are in the iPhone.

Potential investors were reportedly concerned about Facebook’s mobile presence when Zuckerberg took Facebook on their pre-IPOD road show.

There is no time frame for the reported release of the Facebook Phone. The device has been rumored for the past three years.

Last year Facebook endorsed two HTC Android devices, the HTC Salsa and the HTC Cha Cha. Both devices featured deep Facebook integration including a dedicated Facebook button on the front of both phones. Despite the social network having over 800 million members, the HTC Salsa and HTC Cha Cha were just marginal selling phones.

The HTC Cha Cha debuted in the US on AT&T. Despite having heavy Facebook integration and even being the sponsor phone for a reunited Blink 182 tour, the Status didn’t even last a quarter.

So why do they think they’ll have better success? Well one piece of the puzzle is an app store. Facebook already had some heavy hitters developing apps for the Facebook platform. Zynga was even able to grow large enough to go public based on the success of their Facebook social games.

Zynga and Facebook have been working hand in hand together now for years. Zynga may be waiting for the offices Facebook phone before releasing mobile versions of their blockbuster hits FarmVille and CityVille.

Facebook’s mobile apps are consistently top five in all other app stores. They just recently release the Facebook camera app which provides deep integration with Facebook, and the ability to post up to 30 photos at a time to Facebook. The Facebook camera may explain the reasoning behind the purchase of Instagram and Light Box

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