Yeah, if you’ve been kicking around there’s intermittent rumors about Facebook adding a phone to their repeitoire. This probably has some of us thrilled and thinking of the career options, but let me say it’s not making a lot of sense geekonomically.
- First, Facebook is dealing with the recent IPO debacle. Any new radical move isn’t going to instill confidence and may not instill curiosity.
- A move to hardware beyond a partnership is going to be insanely hard. The competitors are established, the market’s margins aren’t the greatest, and Facebook has rep issues. Are they honestly going to compete with, say, Apple?
- What more can they offer that others can’t? Just integration with their services. They can offer that many ways.
- They’d have to gear up to do it, and that requires burning money, making alliances, and hiring people who think this is going to work. I’m not so sure on a lot of this.
If Facebook does indeed go for the phone, I’d be cautious in many ways. I see a lot of strikes against them in doing this, so if that recruiter comes a-calling, be skeptical.
Oh, and imagine what happens if they try this and fail . . .