A pre-event phrase inviting attendees of the Facebook conference on Thursday, April 4 to “come and see [its] new home on Android” restarted rumours a Facebook phone is on its way.
Mark Zuckerberg, founder of the social community, recently denied plans to develop a mobile handset.
The motivation behind the organisation of the event, which is to take place at the Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, California, is still unknown, though Derick Mains, spokesperson for Facebook, told the New York Times the event will reveal a “significant mobile-focused announcement”.
According to Forbes, more likely possibilities include a collaboration announcement with Taiwanese hardware manufacturer HTC.
This possibility is supported by a report of the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), pointing to HTC’s release of the ChaCha phone, fitted with an additional Facebook button which enables direct Facebook posting of photos.
HTC declined to comment on its relationship with Facebook.
“A customised version of Android might help Facebook become more of a central service on smartphones than it can with simply an app that sits on top of Android,” Forbes said.
WSJ believes Facebook will use the opportunity to demonstrate the social network’s enhanced abilities on Android platform, as the company spent increased time on mobile developments on the Google-driven platform.
Facebook has approximately 650 million mobile users, of which 149 million connect via Android.
