This morning, a “Facebook Phone” rumor surfaced when TechCrunch claimed that Joe Hewitt (creator of Facebook) and Matthew Papakipos (former engineering director of Google Chrome OS) were secretly working on a Facebook-branded phone. However this speculation has been trashed by a Facebook spokesman Jaime Schopflin who gave the following statement to Mashable in response to the above rumor:
“The story, which originated in Techcrunch, is not accurate. Facebook is not building a phone. Our approach has always been to make phones and apps more social. Current projects include include everything from an HTML5 version of the site to apps on major platforms to full Connect support with SDKs to deeper integrations with some manufacturers. Our view is that almost all experiences would be better if they were social, so integrating deeply into existing platforms and operating systems is a good way to enable this. For an example, check out Connect for iPhone and the integration we have with contact syncing through our iPhone app. Another example is the INQ1 phone with Facebook integration (the first so-called ‘Facebook Phone’). The people mentioned in the story are working on these projects. The bottom line is that whenever we work on a deep integration, people want to call it a ‘Facebook Phone’ because that’s such an attractive soundbite, but building phones is just not what we do.”
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