According to reports by The Wall Street Journal, Facebook is interested in buying the BlackBerry. Reportedly several Facebook executives met with BlackBerry last week to discuss the potential buy out.
Facebook’s interest in BlackBerry comes as no surprise. Mark Zuckerberg has been quoted expressing a strong interest in acquiring “as many phones as possible.” In 2011 Facebook partnered with HTC and released the HTC ChaCha and HTC Salsa; both smartphones came pre-loaded with the Facebook app. Earlier this year Facebook partnered with HTC again and released the HTC First: a HTC smartphone that integrated Facebook into the userface.
The HTC First was an extension of the previous HTC ChaCha and HTC Salsa and was sold with “Facebook Home” integrated within the smartphone. “Facebook Home” replaced the home/lock screen with Facebook images and status’ and also screened Facebook notifications on the home screen. The idea was novel but it did not resonate with users and become a flop instantly. The HTC First was released only in the US and was discontinue by major handset provider AT&T within months of the release.
It will be interesting to see what route Facebook takes with its next smartphone venture, particularly the BlackBerry if they are successful in their bid. Zuckerberg has expressed numerously that he is not interested in designing and manufacturing an entire phone or operating system. This limits Facebook’s reach to only those who purchase the specific smartphone. His intention is to integrate Facebook into smartphones so that it is accessible on all platforms and to most users. No doubt a major revision of Facebook Home will need to take place in order for this to happen with a complete rethink of how Facebook would be best integrated into a smartphone.
Facebook BlackBerry, however, may never come to fruition as they have some strong competitions as other major players like Samsung, Google and Apple who have also expressed interest in buying the BlackBerry. BlackBerry anticipates to sell by November this year.