Bloomberg: Facebook and HTC working together on a new smartphone, to debut in mid-2013

We’ve been hearing rumors about Facebook’s supposed grand mobile plans for quite some time, but until now, they had but a whiff of credibility. The last one in particular, coming from the New York Times, sounded extremely far-fetched, stating that Facebook was considering building a smartphone from scratch, both in terms of hardware and software.

A new report seems to set the record straight about Facebook’s bold, but sane plans of getting in the smartphone business. According to Bloomberg, Mark Zuckerberg’s company is currently working on a phone with deep integration of Facebook features, but they have sought help from their old partners at HTC.

FB and HTC have worked on a similar “project” before, but the ChaCha (also known as the Status) hasn’t exactly proven a winner. This time around, however, we hope we’ll be treated with a better endowed gadget.

Unfortunately, Bloomberg’s sources (or “people with knowledge of the matter”, as the news online publication calls them) didn’t let any details slip about the hardware of the upcoming phone. As far as software goes, earlier rumors that Facebook will look to fork Android just like Amazon seem to be getting traction.

What’s interesting is that Facebook might not use HTC’s software expertise to tweak Android, but its own team of engineers recruited from ex-Apple and Palm employees. This worries us a bit, as we don’t know exactly how much experience with Android those programmers have, but at least the future device might forego HTC’ Sense overlay, which is not that popular.

Concept by Michal Bonikowski

The unnamed Facebook-HTC smartphone should have been released by the end of the year, according to initial plans, but will not come earlier than mid-2013 after all. The delay has been requested by HTC to allow them to work on other products of their own and then dedicate their time entirely to this project.

Both Facebook and HTC are currently in search of their financial “groove”, so this kind of bold enterprise might make or break their finances. FB is still the most popular social networking service by miles, but its initial public offering from May 17 has probably caused Mark Zuckerberg some serious financial headaches. The now publicly listed company has seen its shares fall 23 percent in the past two months, and “Zuck” is seeing “the shift to mobile” as Facebooks’s greatest challenge right now. Meanwhile, HTC has gone down the slippery slope of financial losses for about a year now, with its shares dropping 43 percent in 2012.

What are your thoughts? Could the new HTC-Facebook phone bring back financial stability to Taiwan, and make mobile profitable in California? Why? Why not?

SOURCES Bloomberg

TAGS FacebookFuture of AndroidFuture TechHTC

View the original article here

Read More

Bloomberg reports – Apple planning to release a smaller iPad soon

With all the rumors about Apple’s next plan for the iPad, one that is so hot right now is that Apple might soon be introducing the iPad mini or at least a new iPad with smaller screen size than the current 9.7-inch models. Interestingly, a new report was published by reputable news agency, Bloomberg saying that Apple is indeed planning to release a new iPad with a screen size somewhere between 7-8 inches diagonally. This report has to come right weeks after Google announced its own tablet – the Nexus 7.

Sounds interesting? Indeed, because the report came from Bloomberg. According to Bloomberg, Apple may announce the product in October. Another interesting information furnished through the report is the fact that the said iPad Mini will not have the same high-definition screen as the current iPad. If this is indeed true, then obviously Apple is gunning for the Google Nexus 7.

Actually, Apple is hitting two birds with one stone or should we one new iPad here. The iPad Mini may go up not only against Google’s Nexus 7 tablet but also against Microsoft’s Surface tablet announced also recently. Of course there’s also the Amazon Kindle Fire which like the Nexus 7 tablet is also sporting a 7-inch display. Amazon is even reported to be preparing to launch the Kindle Fire 2 very soon.

Now, here’s the thing. If Apple pushes through with the iPad Mini, it will certainly give all the other tablets coming out soon a stiff competitor. Apple after all currently holds the majority of the tablet market, thanks to its iPad product line. Apple has dominated the tablet market since the first iPad was launched.

So, it looks like the battle plan of the participants in the next wave of the tablet wars is to make the smallest, most portable and highly functional mini tablet. Which side are going to be on?

No related posts.

View the original article here

Read More

Bloomberg reports – Apple planning to release a smaller iPad soon

With all the rumors about Apple’s next plan for the iPad, one that is so hot right now is that Apple might soon be introducing the iPad mini or at least a new iPad with smaller screen size than the current 9.7-inch models. Interestingly, a new report was published by reputable news agency, Bloomberg saying that Apple is indeed planning to release a new iPad with a screen size somewhere between 7-8 inches diagonally. This report has to come right weeks after Google announced its own tablet – the Nexus 7.
Sounds interesting? Indeed, because the report came from Bloomberg. According to Bloomberg, Apple may announce the product in October. Another interesting information furnished through the report is the fact that the said iPad Mini will not have the same high-definition screen as the current iPad. If this is indeed true, then obviously Apple is gunning for the Google Nexus 7.

Actually, Apple is hitting two birds with one stone or should we one new iPad here. The iPad Mini may go up not only against Google’s Nexus 7 tablet but also against Microsoft’s Surface tablet announced also recently. Of course there’s also the Amazon Kindle Fire which like the Nexus 7 tablet is also sporting a 7-inch display. Amazon is even reported to be preparing to launch the Kindle Fire 2 very soon.
Now, here’s the thing. If Apple pushes through with the iPad Mini, it will certainly give all the other tablets coming out soon a stiff competitor. Apple after all currently holds the majority of the tablet market, thanks to its iPad product line. Apple has dominated the tablet market since the first iPad was launched.
So, it looks like the battle plan of the participants in the next wave of the tablet wars is to make the smallest, most portable and highly functional mini tablet. Which side are going to be on?

Source: View the original article here

Read More