There have been rumours of a Facebook Phone doing the rounds for a while now. The device would be a follow up to the ill fated HTC Chacha and looks likely to once again be manufactured by HTC.
The new device is alleged to be a mid range android handset with middle of the road specifications and a comparatively low end price point.
The question I have is what is the target market?
I believe the issue here is one of image.
People want and aspire to the best. This is the reason that the Samsung Galaxy S range and the iPhones sell so well. They are the best at what they are designed for and do it well in most cases.
This fits across all age groups and social classes.
Now imagine a group of twenty somethings in a pub or cafe, having a discussion on their newest mobile device.
You can easily predict the handsets that will be listed. The Samsung Galaxy S3, iPhone 4s, iPhone 5, a Galaxy Note 2, Blackberry z10 and maybe even the odd HTC One X.
Looking at that list it is hard to see where the Facebook phone fits in.
So we could move on to a possible target market, the teenager…..
Now I am the proud owner of one such teenager and I can say with complete certainty that there is no way on earth that he would carry such a device. An iPhone certainly. A Nexus or an S3, absolutely. A Facebook phone….no way!
Once again teenagers pretty much always want the best. They want to stand in the school playground and show off the best, the all singing, all dancing music blaring, internet surfing, Skype calling mobile. Again, where does the reputed Facebook phone fit in?
Power users and so-called geeks want either the best of the best or something hackable and so pretty much only a Nexus or an iPhone will do.
Which once again leads to the question, who will buy the latest Facebook offering?
Facebook have an app for all platforms and the website is accessible from everywhere. Does anyone really need a whole Facebook handset?
Facebook could also be met with opposition from carriers who probably won’t want to be promoting a handset that appears to have one main purpose (accessing the Facebook network) and doesn’t actively or passively promote usage of the carriers own offerings.
So, who will buy the Facebook phone and what exactly do Facebook hope to achieve?
It’s totally beyond me, if you have a clue,please, let us know in the comments below!
I think it’s Facebook’s Nexus – a technology demonstration.
If the “Facebook phone” bit is essentially a launcher on top of Android, that could easily be installed on any Android phone – including the top range you speak of.
However, release just the launcher & you have to rely on people picking it up.
But release a phone showing it to its maximum potential, and then say “oh and you can have this on your Android phone too”, and you dramatically increase the potential (not guaranteed though) uptake.
Exactly what Google did with their Nexus range.