Android: The New Home for Facebook

Here we go again. More speculation about Facebook getting their hands dirty in hardware.  This is a subject that people should not get their hopes up for.  Last year, consumers hoped for a Facebook phone and forced Mark Zuckerburg to shut that idea down during an interview. He clearly stated that "he couldn't emphasize enough that there will be no Facebook phone".  Then consumers got excited again January of this year when Facebook held a press conference. The mysterious invite simply said "Come and see what we're building". After all the excitement and speculation about a Facebook phone, consumers and tech geeks got a search tool.  The search tool (referred to as Graph search) allows the nearly 1 billion Facebook users to search data and metadata about photos, people and other things of interest. This is impressive, but it is still not a Facebook phone.

Today Facebook has done it again. Facebook sent out several invitations to members of the press for an April 4th press event. With a mysterious one line invitation, they have stirred up people everywhere: "Come see our new home on Android".

Despite the fact that Mark has told us over and over that a Facebook phone is not the direction for Facebook, fanatics still do not believe him. I hate to be a spoil sport, but based off his attitude towards taking a dip into the mobile industry, there is no use in getting excited (for a third time) about something that is not going to happen.  As a software developer, I personally can say that I'd rather not get my hands dirty in the work of mechanics and engineering of hardware, and all the downfalls that come with having to create a physical tangible device that is safe and satisfies consumers.

Facebook can barely create and maintain decent mobile applications. Although Facebook has been around for years, they have failed to demonstrate that they can release a mature mobile app on any mobile operating system. Therefore, I am hopeful that this is what is to be unveiled at the April 4th conference.  Facebook, though it may have taken a turn for some, a still a highly functional, useful and intuitive social networking tool.  Their best bet would be to provide better functionality on mobile devices as our world becomes more mobile. 

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