Facebook Phone a certain reality in the near future

Long back on 15.1.2013, I had written a an article about the Facebook phone to be announced by Facebook. Though instead of Facebook phone it went on to announce a search graph engine at that time. Now again the rumour mills are abound with the talk of Facebook phone. Why does Facebook need a phone?

Facebook is undergoing one its biggest problems since its launch. Its social networking site is not growing anymore and despite all the hype the search graph engine didn't take off as expected by Facebook.

Yesterday it launched a new interface on Facebook which many accused of being a copy of Google Plus. It may be or not be a copy of the Google Plus, but the fact remains that Facebook is not longer getting popular. It has come to the peak of its growth stage and now only the decent seems likely possibility.

The Facebook shares which were listed with much fanfare at $38.00 are still lurking in the below $30.00 range and its ad revenue streams are freezing.

Ads and Facebook have never been friends. Facebook page with Ads is often considered a breach of privacy by its users. Add to that the real estate available on Facebook is very small.

And to grow, a company needs steady stream of revenue. Having said that, Facebook has to look at other options for generating revenue. One of the most likely options is launch of a smart phone. Just like Google has Android and Nexus to generate a steady revenue for the company, Facebook needs one too and needs one before the end of this year to spruce up the company's revenues.

So what are the options available for Facebook. It has either to go alone at it(which seems impossible) or have a manufacturer to sell a branded Facebook Phone. This looks more likely with the probable suitor being HTC.

HTC and Facebook had earlier tied up to launch a smart phone named the HTC Status, one of the two Facebook-centric HTC phones, came with a 5-megapixel camera. However the phone failed to make any dent in the market. Now it is rumoured that HTC and Facebook are partnering for a smart phone named Myst. It is even said that the phone could see release as early as this spring in the US.

Unwired has released a image of the specs of the future Facebook phone.