First we heard that Facebook is making a phone, then we were told that it’s not, then we heard that there will be two Facebook phones, and then we wondered what makes sense about all these rumours.
And now? Now we’re pretty damn sure that the Facebook Phone is real – particularly considering that TechCrunch has a video walkthrough of the device.
Turns out that there will be several Facebook phones built by different mobile phone manufacturers. The first one – the one in the video – is built by INQ Mobile, a British startup.
This particular device will be called the INQ Cloud Touch and, according to TechCrunch, is basically a decent, low-cost Android phone with a nice Facebook wrapper:
So is this an iPhone killer? No, but it’s not trying to be. It is a decent Android phone for the Facebook generation, and it is going to be teenage-cheap. Depending on the subsidy from the carrier, this could end up costing consumers as little as $US50 with a contract (perhaps $US250 without one, although pricing has not yet been finalised).
Yeah, it’s not exactly something that most of us will drool over, so it’s a good thing that it’s only the first of many Facebook phones—or at least I think that’s a good thing. [TechCrunch]