Could tie up with Taiwan’s HTC
Shares in social networking site Facebook hit a six month high yesterday following rumours that Mark Zuckerberg’s company is set to unveil its own smartphone.
Speculation was sparked when Facebook sent out invitations to a special event for next week, encouraging guests to “come and see what we’re building” and reigniting earlier suggestions that it’s about to launch its own branded smartphone, possibly in conjunction with Taiwan’s HTC.
HTC has been struggling against both Apple and Samsung in the past year, but is in a position to build either Android or Windows Phone handsets.
Facebook, meanwhile, has been striving to counter media critics who say its advertising appeal is less compelling on smartphones than the desktop.
While Zuckerberg has recently changed the look of adverts to work better on mobile devices, launching its own branded smartphone could prove a more effective way of boosting advertising sales.
But if does, it would contradict Zuckerberg himself who in the past has down-played suggestions that the company will build a phone, claiming it “would clearly be the wrong strategy for us.”
In New York last night [9th January 2013] Facebook’s stock broke the $30 mark for the first time, almost double its price in early September when analysts were questioning the company’s sustainability.
