The Case for the ‘Facebook Phone’ Gets Stronger

It was reported earlier this week that Facebook may be secretly working on a phone with an Android backbone.  At the time, we were looking at a they-said/we-said argument with TechCrunch implying it’s already in the works while Facebook was throwing cold water on the subject.  Given all the details early in the week, most of you didn’t expect to see an actual Facebook phone come to light.  In fact, based on some of your comments, some of you could care less about the subject.  Read on to see if your opinion changes…A new report from Bloomberg alleges that not only are Facebook working on a phone, but they are developing two of them in conjunction with INQ Mobile with plans to launch them on AT&T.  The phones, which could sell for around 0 after subsidy, are rumored with a July/August 2011 release.  According to Bloomberg, the phones will debut in Europe a few months earlier where INQ already has an existing relationship with carriers and retailers.

This is not the first time INQ’s name has been thrown into the mix – We’ve covered them a time or two in the past and even mentioned how they were hoping to get a strong foothold in the United States.  CEO Frank Meehan was quoted as recently as June as being in love with Android, saying, “We are going all-Android and touch.”  The handset maker already has a device coined the Facebook phone, so it might be easy to tie them to the deal.  On the other hand, this marks the first time we’ve seen a potential price point and release date associated with the project.  Looking at some of Facebook’s recent moves such as Places (check-in)  we can get the sense that they would really benefit from a more mobile experience.

So let’s throw it back to you.  Do you think Facebook