Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With
Speaker 1: tech Stuff from how stuff Works dot com. Well, hello there,
Speaker 1: welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Poulette, and
Speaker 1: I am an editor here and how stuff works dot Com.
Speaker 1: Sitting across from me as he always does, his senior writer,
Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland, What is steel compared to the hand that
Speaker 1: wields it. Look at the strength in your body, the
Speaker 1: desire in your heart. I gave you this such a waste.
Speaker 1: Contemplate this on the tree of whoa whoa, whoa. Well,
Speaker 1: we have two quotes for the price of one much
Speaker 1: shorter than the other, right, right, So you get a
Speaker 1: bonus point if you you can name the other quote
Speaker 1: a third of a point. I shall I shall go
Speaker 1: so far as to say that quote has nothing to
Speaker 1: do with what we will be talking about today. No,
Speaker 1: because we are talking about the Facebook phone, or the
Speaker 1: rumor I should say, have a Facebook phone right now.
Speaker 1: This rumor first surfaced on the interwebs back on September nineteen. Yes,
Speaker 1: that's when a certain Mr Arrington of tech crunch fame
Speaker 1: wrote about this, quoting some unnamed sources stating that Facebook
Speaker 1: was looking into designing a phone, and uh. It was
Speaker 1: quick to point out even in that piece that Facebook
Speaker 1: was not necessarily looking at designing the actual hardware, but
Speaker 1: rather designing some sort of interface or operating system that
Speaker 1: would rest on that hardware and be deeply integrated in
Speaker 1: the handset, so that Facebook would kind of guide your
Speaker 1: entire experience on the phone. Yes, and that's really not unusual.
Speaker 1: Um no, no, Apple and Google are both doing that. Yes,
Speaker 1: absolutely sou So the question is are they actually going
Speaker 1: to do that, And the answer is definitively maybe. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Here's the thing is that Facebook came out very quickly
Speaker 1: after this report was published on tech Crunch to deny
Speaker 1: the claims, but they denied it in such a way
Speaker 1: that it sounded almost like it was arguing semantics, like
Speaker 1: like they were saying, no, no, we're not designing an
Speaker 1: interface for a phone. We're just developing some new interfaces
Speaker 1: to go with smartphones. And you think, wait, that's what
Speaker 1: we said you were doing, and like no, no, no,
Speaker 1: look over here, it's a picture of Chewbacca. Uh yeah,
Speaker 1: it was the Chewbacca defense. It was um uh, it
Speaker 1: definitely seemed like they were the Facebook executives were trying
Speaker 1: to back away from something while not categorically denying it.
Speaker 1: Um and the Arrington had some interesting evidence to to
Speaker 1: point to. I mean evidence in the loosest sense of
Speaker 1: circumstantial evidence, I guess is what you would call it.
Speaker 1: And part of that was that he had suspected that
Speaker 1: who Facebook employees, in particular two very high ranking ones.
Speaker 1: We're working on this project. Yes, Joe Hewitt and Matthew
Speaker 1: Papas actually have no idea how to say his name
Speaker 1: because I'm not Greek. Well, but both neither of those
Speaker 1: two gentlemen are strangers to the smartphone software designing world.
Speaker 1: That's true. Hewitt actually was one of the people who
Speaker 1: worked on the Firefox browser and and so he he
Speaker 1: was developing Facebook applications for iPhone and things like that,
Speaker 1: and then apparently got kind of tired of doing that. Um.
Speaker 1: So Arrington suggests that Hewitt may be working on this
Speaker 1: new interface for a phone, like a Facebook branded phone.
Speaker 1: Uh uh, Matthew, because I'm going to say Matthew just
Speaker 1: because I don't want to ruin the guy's last name.
Speaker 1: I like I said, I'm not exactly certain how to
Speaker 1: how to pronounce it, because my Greek is terrible. My
Speaker 1: Greek is worse than Shakespeare's and his was pretty darn bad.
Speaker 1: So Matthew was. He came from Google. Actually, he had
Speaker 1: been working on the Google Chrome operating system, and Facebook
Speaker 1: lured him away. And Errington said, what could possibly lure
Speaker 1: an engineer away from a project as interesting as the
Speaker 1: Google Chrome operating system appears to be? And so Errington's
Speaker 1: conclusion is that the Facebook phone is really the only
Speaker 1: thing that makes sense to him. So again, circumstantial evidence. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and at this point, um, at at the point at
Speaker 1: which we are recording this in late September, um, there's
Speaker 1: nothing that definitively states that Facebook of the company is
Speaker 1: going to build a phone for certain, I mean, even
Speaker 1: with a with a partner, that Facebook will come out
Speaker 1: with a phone that has Facebook on it, you know,
Speaker 1: on it as its brand name. Sorry that that didn't
Speaker 1: come out right. Well no, no, but just just like
Speaker 1: just like the HTS, the phones and other Android phones,
Speaker 1: some of them have the Google brand printed on the phone.
Speaker 1: Even though Google did not design the hardware. In some cases,
Speaker 1: Google had a very tight relationship with that hardware provider,
Speaker 1: so that the specs would would be able to support
Speaker 1: the operating system Google was developing, but ultimately that design
Speaker 1: rests with another company. That's the same sort of thing
Speaker 1: that we're talking about here is that, Uh, we don't
Speaker 1: know if there's going to be a phone that comes
Speaker 1: out that will have Facebook's logo on there as part
Speaker 1: of the phone. But absolutely mobile phones are of different
Speaker 1: sorts are prime targets for Facebook. Um. That's been proven
Speaker 1: through other applications for Android and iPhone and others, um,
Speaker 1: BlackBerry and UM. They actually, you know, this is something
Speaker 1: that they really want to do, uh, and they want
Speaker 1: to be available to mobile customers. And I think mobile
Speaker 1: customers want to have access to Facebook, especially with smartphones
Speaker 1: that have a more rich experience than than others might
Speaker 1: um with the hardware. Um. The thing is, why would
Speaker 1: Facebook want to do this other than you know, hey,
Speaker 1: we just like to make the service convenient for our subscribers, right. Um,
Speaker 1: it's really the same reason that Google and Apple want
Speaker 1: to do it. It's it's really and it's really a
Speaker 1: an attempt to define what your mobile online experience will be.
Speaker 1: Right because right now, Facebook is an app that rests
Speaker 1: on another operating system, as a foundation. So Facebook is
Speaker 1: just one of those things, or the Facebook apps are
Speaker 1: just one of those apps you can access along with
Speaker 1: all the other dozens of apps or hundreds or thousands
Speaker 1: of apps that are available for whatever platform you're using.
Speaker 1: But once you close out the app, unless you're using
Speaker 1: other apps that connect to Facebook through Facebook connect, uh,
Speaker 1: you're not. You're no longer really relying on the platform anymore. Right.
Speaker 1: Facebook would like to create just like any other company
Speaker 1: would like to create a platform where everything is kind
Speaker 1: of integrated through their system. It gives them way more information,
Speaker 1: which as we know Facebook, for Facebook, information is money. Yes,
Speaker 1: And uh, I think that Marguerite Reardon and Caroline McCarthy,
Speaker 1: I've seen it, probably have hit the nail on the
Speaker 1: head on exactly what type of information Facebook would like
Speaker 1: to make available to you. And uh, it's uh, it's
Speaker 1: not really Farmville, although I think there's an app for that.
Speaker 1: Sure for most phones. There is for the the iPhone,
Speaker 1: I know, Um, but no, it's not that at all.
Speaker 1: The information that Facebook wants to make available to you
Speaker 1: is the advertising information. Um. As the they McCarthy and
Speaker 1: uh Reardon cided the International Telecommunications Union, who said that
Speaker 1: five billion people worldwide are using some kind of cell phone,
Speaker 1: and um, you know, since Google and Apple control the
Speaker 1: ad markets on their respective platforms, Facebook, it would make
Speaker 1: sense that Facebook would want to leverage the plus million
Speaker 1: users who are using their website, um as they already
Speaker 1: do and with their partners to try to advertise to them.
Speaker 1: And so this would be a prime opportunity for them
Speaker 1: to do that. And that's a good reason for them
Speaker 1: to actually make the move, right. It's another revenue generator
Speaker 1: if they if they were able to leverage the mobile
Speaker 1: world the way they have the web, just the basic web, Uh,
Speaker 1: they could you know, you're talking about the potentially doubling
Speaker 1: or more your revenue. I mean that's and keep in
Speaker 1: mind this is still a private company. This is that's
Speaker 1: when you sit there and think about how much money
Speaker 1: Zuckerberg is supposedly worse. That's a mark Zuckerberg founder and
Speaker 1: CEO well some some some dispute the founder part, but
Speaker 1: definitely ceo Facebook. He um. He was recently valued at
Speaker 1: some crazy I think it was like twenty four billion dollars.
Speaker 1: It was a it was a really high amount. Um.
Speaker 1: You would imagine that number would grow exponentially or at least,
Speaker 1: maybe not exponentially, but at least linearly from if he
Speaker 1: were able to leverage the mobile world the way he
Speaker 1: has the web world. And you were speaking about seen
Speaker 1: it Seen It also has reports from hardware manufacturers that
Speaker 1: Facebook has Facebook executives have approached them about creating a
Speaker 1: device that would allow Facebook to be deeply integrated into
Speaker 1: the phone's features and article. And in fact, they've gone
Speaker 1: so far seen that actually has gone so far as
Speaker 1: to suggest that, uh, they're working. Facebook's actively working with
Speaker 1: I n Q Mobile, Yes, to create two smartphones that
Speaker 1: will be really heavily Facebook have heavy Facebook integration with
Speaker 1: them that would launch over in Europe in the first
Speaker 1: half and in the United States in the second half.
Speaker 1: And that's funny because uh, and connected to the A,
Speaker 1: T and T network. I just wanted to finish that. Sorry,
Speaker 1: I didn't mean to interrupt at all. Um. Yes, actually,
Speaker 1: uh that goes also along if if you think about
Speaker 1: it with um recent rumors again that Facebook is plotting um,
Speaker 1: and that's a good word plotting, Yes, well, actually in
Speaker 1: a in a good way for them, um, not in
Speaker 1: a sinister sort of way. Um. Seriously planned making plans
Speaker 1: again for an initial public offering of stock. Um that
Speaker 1: would help help them do some um, you know, add
Speaker 1: some badly needed cash for adventure of that sort of
Speaker 1: uh scale. I would imagine. However, the number I saw,
Speaker 1: actually the date I saw on that was when I
Speaker 1: saw that again this morning. So if the phone that
Speaker 1: would mean that the phones would hit, that would be
Speaker 1: before the rumored again again again I p o. There
Speaker 1: are so many rumored I p o s for Facebook
Speaker 1: at this point. Yeah, Facebook, pretty much ever since Facebook
Speaker 1: started taking off, there have been rumors about when they
Speaker 1: would have a public offering, and you've got to I'm
Speaker 1: sure that the investors in Facebook are eagerly anticipating that
Speaker 1: day because it's going to turn them all into even
Speaker 1: more filthy rich people than they already are, because of course,
Speaker 1: you know, Facebook is funded by lots of well now
Speaker 1: it's got revenue, but it was initially funded by by
Speaker 1: some venture capital investors. So but now it's of course,
Speaker 1: it's actually making money. It's not just an unlike Twitter,
Speaker 1: which is a you know, a service that still doesn't
Speaker 1: really have a viable business model, Facebook actually does because
Speaker 1: they make their money through advertising, and of course, and
Speaker 1: that's exactly what we were talking about earlier with Facebook
Speaker 1: using the information you have through your phone, uh as
Speaker 1: another yet another UH commodity to sell to advertisers. And
Speaker 1: in fact that that kind of leads into a discussion
Speaker 1: about things that we need to be concerned about. If
Speaker 1: there is to be a Facebook phone, Yes, and privacy
Speaker 1: is way up there, because Facebook, of course is UH
Speaker 1: infamous really for the way that it handles privacy or
Speaker 1: doesn't handle privacy, depending upon your perspective on the matter.
Speaker 1: And Zuckerberg himself has been known to say in one
Speaker 1: way or another that privacy is a it's an outdated concept,
Speaker 1: you know, and for someone who says that he's actually
Speaker 1: a remarkably private person, but he claims, or he has
Speaker 1: claimed in the past, at least in a circumcans circumspect way,
Speaker 1: that privacy is on the way out, that it's it's
Speaker 1: something that is just not really valued anymore, and so
Speaker 1: UH as a result, you shouldn't have to worry about
Speaker 1: it so much when you're providing services. UM. Now, that's
Speaker 1: landed him and Facebook into some hot water among consumers
Speaker 1: and consumer groups advocacy advocacy groups in the past. So
Speaker 1: I would imagine a Facebook phone would bring even more
Speaker 1: questions because think of it this way. The idea with
Speaker 1: integrating the Facebook elements into the phone, It may have
Speaker 1: things like turning your contact list into a Facebook friends list. Right, So,
Speaker 1: then you start wondering, well, how much of this information
Speaker 1: is Facebook really accessing or capable of accessing? Are they
Speaker 1: able to see who all my friends are? I mean
Speaker 1: imagine they would be able to because it's so deeply
Speaker 1: integrated into Facebook. Would they be able to see who
Speaker 1: I call and when? Would they be able to see
Speaker 1: how long my phone calls last with particular context? How
Speaker 1: would they use that information? Would they then start to
Speaker 1: make other connections? Like let's say that they know for
Speaker 1: a fact, because of the of my behavior on Facebook
Speaker 1: that I have a deep interest in football. Let's say,
Speaker 1: you know, let's say I've joined the fan page of
Speaker 1: a couple of football teams, maybe the fan page for
Speaker 1: the NFL itself, and that maybe even some fantasy football leagues.
Speaker 1: Things like that, and Facebook Facebook says, all right, well,
Speaker 1: clearly this guy's nuts about football. So he's a valuable
Speaker 1: asset to anyone who would advertise to such a market.
Speaker 1: Right now, let's say that you're making lots and lots
Speaker 1: of phone calls to your buddy Billy, And so Facebook's
Speaker 1: now got you know you're using a Facebook phone. Facebook
Speaker 1: looks and says, hey, look this, this guy who's really
Speaker 1: crazy about football is always calling his buddy Bill. You
Speaker 1: know what, I bet that they share a lot in
Speaker 1: common and there's a good chance that Bill is also
Speaker 1: a big football fans. So how about we sell Bill
Speaker 1: two advertisers as well, and maybe there maybe you have
Speaker 1: different tiers of people like you have the one tier
Speaker 1: where you're like, these are the people who are definitely
Speaker 1: interested in your product because they have demonstrated that on Facebook.
Speaker 1: Here's the next tier down, which are the context of
Speaker 1: those people who are the really valuable audience. These are
Speaker 1: people who are likely to also value your product, but
Speaker 1: we aren't assure. Yeah, like, I mean, that's just an example.
Speaker 1: I'm just pulling that out of the air. That could
Speaker 1: be miles away from what anyone's thinking, but it's the
Speaker 1: source of stuff we have to worry about. You know,
Speaker 1: how much are the information of ourselves are we giving away?
Speaker 1: And how much information about the people we know do
Speaker 1: we give away? Yeah? Yeah, well really that could be
Speaker 1: anyone though, I mean It's funny because the Facebook aspect
Speaker 1: of it, because there have been so many concerns with
Speaker 1: Facebook dot Com and privacy users privacy in the past.
Speaker 1: It really the same things could be asked of any
Speaker 1: carrier or provider of application, because there's there's really no
Speaker 1: telling what kind of information these applications are sending back.
Speaker 1: And I wouldn't I wouldn't uh say that we should
Speaker 1: all go out screaming in the streets and bash our
Speaker 1: smartphones into you know, lead and glass, inert pieces of
Speaker 1: uh trash simply because of this. I mean, I don't
Speaker 1: think it's that kind of thing, is uh rampant or
Speaker 1: anything like that. I just think, you know, it's funny
Speaker 1: that Facebook makes us suddenly go, hey, well, how's Facebook
Speaker 1: gonna you know, if we have a Facebook phone, you know,
Speaker 1: what will they do with our privacy? But I'm going, well,
Speaker 1: you know, why couldn't that be said of you know,
Speaker 1: any of the providers. They have the messages that travel
Speaker 1: across the network on encrypted um and uh you know,
Speaker 1: there there's information. I saw somebody recently say, um, you
Speaker 1: need to be careful when you turn in your old
Speaker 1: phone because you know, if you don't clear out your
Speaker 1: address book. What what information is stored in the phone's
Speaker 1: architecture itself, the memory inside the phone. If you do,
Speaker 1: do you actually clean it out or do you just
Speaker 1: turn it back in and hope they're going to to
Speaker 1: mulch it. Well, you make an ex in point because obviously,
Speaker 1: uh Android, Google Android, that the way Google Android works
Speaker 1: is you you give that information over to Google. You
Speaker 1: create a Google account if you don't have one already.
Speaker 1: Your contact list is stored in the cloud with Google. Yes,
Speaker 1: you know, all of the apps you buy are stored
Speaker 1: in the cloud with Google. So ultimately Google has that information.
Speaker 1: And there there have been people who have brought this
Speaker 1: to light saying this is this should be concern people
Speaker 1: at least on some level. You should at least ask
Speaker 1: questions like what are you doing with this data? Uh?
Speaker 1: And some people definitely hold Google under close scrutiny and
Speaker 1: they are very suspicious of the company and its goals. Right,
Speaker 1: But I don't think that even that being said, and
Speaker 1: despite how pervasive Google is and how a lot of
Speaker 1: people would say that at this point, we the Internet
Speaker 1: would not be the same without Google, Like if Google
Speaker 1: went away, the Internet would really suffer. Um, I still
Speaker 1: think that people hold Facebook to an even higher level
Speaker 1: of suspicion, mainly because of its fairly well publicized bouts
Speaker 1: with privacy issues, particularly the fact that in a Facebook
Speaker 1: profile you have to opt out of so many things
Speaker 1: in order to keep them private. You know. It's that
Speaker 1: that a lack of privacy is the standard at Facebook.
Speaker 1: It's only by going through and tweaking your settings that
Speaker 1: you are able to control your privacy. Otherwise you have
Speaker 1: a very public uh profile out there, including things like
Speaker 1: Facebook Places, which brought up a whole new rash of
Speaker 1: questions and concerns. And I would imagine that Facebook Places
Speaker 1: would be very heavily integrated into a Facebook phone, almost
Speaker 1: to the point where you could, you know, just ad
Speaker 1: a touch of an app, you would you would automatically
Speaker 1: update your Facebook profile to explain where you were like that.
Speaker 1: That would that makes perfect sense to me from a
Speaker 1: the perspective of Facebook. Well, yeah, I mean it's already
Speaker 1: been um, it's already been noted. Uh Rearan and McCarthy
Speaker 1: in their article. Uh we're pointing out that over the
Speaker 1: last little while here they've Facebook has updated its application
Speaker 1: to include all sorts of uh, you know, other bells
Speaker 1: and whistles like geotagging. Um. And it's the the application
Speaker 1: has become more a little bit more like an operating system,
Speaker 1: they had said. Plus they bought a company called hot Potato,
Speaker 1: which is uh sort of you know, it's the geolocation
Speaker 1: checking in uh feature that you see on on so
Speaker 1: many applications these days. Um. You know, so that that
Speaker 1: will give advertisers more information about where you are, so
Speaker 1: they could say, hey, well, if you're down here at
Speaker 1: this corner, you should come eat at my restaurant. You know,
Speaker 1: we're right down the block. Um. But I definitely think
Speaker 1: it's the kind of thing that is that's not kind
Speaker 1: of go away. Now that that Apple and Google have
Speaker 1: embraced it. UM, I did note and Electronista UM that
Speaker 1: Research in Motion, the parent company of BlackBerry, has just
Speaker 1: as of the this recording, just released the BlackBerry Advertising Service,
Speaker 1: which is they're going to split revenue um sixty forty.
Speaker 1: The advertisers get the revenue, but they're going to give
Speaker 1: more control over the the application of advertising to the
Speaker 1: app developers. UM. Not as much as you know, Apple
Speaker 1: has control over what can be done over the user experience.
Speaker 1: Course that that will be interesting to see what happens
Speaker 1: with that. But now that that BlackBerry, Google, and Apple
Speaker 1: are all into the mobile advertising market, companies such as
Speaker 1: Facebook and Amazon and other people who are large media
Speaker 1: companies um, online media companies are probably going to look
Speaker 1: to that as a source of of revenue and find
Speaker 1: ways to uh gain the presence in there and to
Speaker 1: bolster their things. And I know that people are probably saying,
Speaker 1: you know, Amazon, where are you talking kind of out
Speaker 1: but I've seen some signs that they are interested in
Speaker 1: developing other kinds of applications for mobile use, So it's
Speaker 1: not out of the question. I don't think they would
Speaker 1: be as far you know, I don't think there would
Speaker 1: be an Amazon phone, at least not before Facebook comes
Speaker 1: out with one. But I wouldn't imagine that it's out
Speaker 1: of the question. I mean, it's always looking for new
Speaker 1: and innovative ways to make money there. They're hosting service
Speaker 1: application service, UM. You know, it's not something that I
Speaker 1: wouldn't necessarily consider an Amazon core business, but it's something
Speaker 1: that they're in well, and they're already integrated with other
Speaker 1: operating systems pretty well. I mean the Android system in
Speaker 1: particular has Amazon integration where you can very quickly with
Speaker 1: like a one touch thing by Songs off of Amazon,
Speaker 1: for example, which is just that that's just a tiny
Speaker 1: baby step of integration. Uh. Well, they're definitely open minded
Speaker 1: enough to make kindle applications for Android and the iOS.
Speaker 1: So and that kind of leads into the discussion about
Speaker 1: why Facebook might be backing away from from these claims,
Speaker 1: why Facebook might be denying them. It's part of it
Speaker 1: is just that they're treading a very thin line here, right.
Speaker 1: They have to be really careful. They want to be
Speaker 1: able to From a business perspective, it makes sense that
Speaker 1: you want to be able to integrate your your services
Speaker 1: more tightly into the hardware so that you have you
Speaker 1: can gather as much information as possible and solid advertisers.
Speaker 1: Let's just boil it down to that. But on the
Speaker 1: other hand, you don't want to uh antagonize, right, Apple
Speaker 1: and Android and all of these other providers that are
Speaker 1: are you know, these other uh smartphone operating system developers.
Speaker 1: Let's say that that provide you a platform for your app.
Speaker 1: You don't want to alienate them. You don't want to
Speaker 1: give them a reason to no longer allow your app
Speaker 1: on their devices. Even though I seriously doubt that would
Speaker 1: ever happen because Facebook is so popular it would really
Speaker 1: surprise me. I mean, granted, I guess people could always
Speaker 1: navigate to the website via the mobile browser, but it
Speaker 1: would really surprised me to see those apps go away.
Speaker 1: But you don't want to antagonize them, because even if
Speaker 1: you come out with your own branded phone, you're going
Speaker 1: to be competing directly with them in the marketplace. And
Speaker 1: they're big boys. Yes, they Android and Apple have a
Speaker 1: huge head start. Apple in particular has a huge head start. Um.
Speaker 1: I mean, Symbion is still the worldwide dominant operating system
Speaker 1: for mobile phones, but in the United States, Apple and
Speaker 1: Android and to a lesser extent, rim are really they're
Speaker 1: the big players for the smartphone space anyway. And of
Speaker 1: course there's the Windows Mobile seven. You know that that's
Speaker 1: due out very soon and that may make a big impact.
Speaker 1: I've heard some positive things there. Yeah, I've seen the
Speaker 1: demos I've seen of it look very good. Whether or
Speaker 1: not it's going to be good enough to to really
Speaker 1: go toe to toe with the other big boys that will,
Speaker 1: I think that will mainly depend upon the hardware. Like really,
Speaker 1: that's the big advantage Apple has over everyone else is
Speaker 1: that they they've dictated exactly what the hardware and software
Speaker 1: are going to do, and so they have full control
Speaker 1: of the package, whereas uh, Android and Windows Phone seven
Speaker 1: are somewhat slave to whatever the handset manufacturers are able
Speaker 1: to come up with rems. Like Apple, but then rem
Speaker 1: is more of the enterprise, not the consumer, and they
Speaker 1: have far more models out to right then than if
Speaker 1: the iPhone. Right. So, so one argument I've seen is
Speaker 1: that Facebook might target a more like a messenger phone,
Speaker 1: you know, a feature phone that's not a full smartphone. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's what the the inc information suggests that it is. Specifically,
Speaker 1: it's it's smarter than a dumb phone, but not as
Speaker 1: smart as a smartphone, right exactly, which which might be
Speaker 1: the right target, because then you're hitting people who maybe
Speaker 1: maybe they don't want to shell out the money for
Speaker 1: a full smartphone where they're not going to use the
Speaker 1: other applications, right, So it makes sense to to take
Speaker 1: aim for that market, and then you don't really directly
Speaker 1: compete with Apple and Android because it's it's a different market.
Speaker 1: It's like, you know, it's like sports cars versus compact cars.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's two totally different markets. You don't have
Speaker 1: to worry. You're not in direct competition with one another. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're both vehicles, but you're not aiming at the same market.
Speaker 1: One's aiming at people in their midlife crisis and the others.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's smart, same people. Um hey, I'm getting
Speaker 1: up there. Man, I'm going to be in sports car
Speaker 1: bode before you know it. But well, okay, there's that,
Speaker 1: but you know details details, You could buy one and
Speaker 1: sit in it, right, So I thought I would also
Speaker 1: quote Zuckerberg. He actually did an interview with tech Crunch
Speaker 1: to kind of clear the air about what was going
Speaker 1: on here. Did you read about this? No, well I didn't. Yeah,
Speaker 1: a little bit about it, but you didn't actually, Yeah.
Speaker 1: So here's here's what he says. And this is this
Speaker 1: kind of goes back to the whole contradictory message that
Speaker 1: Facebook is giving. You know, it's one of those things
Speaker 1: where you use so much jargon and double speak that
Speaker 1: at the end you're not really sure what exactly was said.
Speaker 1: So here's here's what Zuckerberg had to say. At the
Speaker 1: end of the day, when people say building a phone,
Speaker 1: they actually can mean very different things internally, the way
Speaker 1: we talk about our strategy, it's like the opposite of that.
Speaker 1: Our whole strategy is not to build any specific device
Speaker 1: or integration or anything like that, because we're not trying
Speaker 1: to compete with Apple or the Droid or any other
Speaker 1: hardware manufacturer for that matter. Take instant personalization. Our goal
Speaker 1: is to make it so there's as little friction as
Speaker 1: possible to having a social experience. So you go to
Speaker 1: some apps, take Rotten Tomatoes, which we just launched last week.
Speaker 1: If people had to click the blue button to connect,
Speaker 1: then some percent of them would, but it would take
Speaker 1: it would be the minority because you don't know exactly
Speaker 1: what you're going to get before you click it. If
Speaker 1: you had to put up some modal dialogue, then that
Speaker 1: would be crazy from a u X perspective. But the
Speaker 1: fact that they can do that instant integration for the
Speaker 1: users that want it means that everyone has a good
Speaker 1: experience as soon as they get there. On phones, we
Speaker 1: can actually do something better. We can do a single
Speaker 1: sign on if we do a good integration with a phone,
Speaker 1: rather than just something where you go to an app
Speaker 1: and it's to Magley Social or having to sign into
Speaker 1: each app individually. Those are the two options on the web.
Speaker 1: Why not for mobile just make it so that you
Speaker 1: log into your phone once and then everything that you
Speaker 1: do on your phone is social. Okay, do you spot
Speaker 1: the incredible contradiction there? He says at the top of
Speaker 1: it that they are not looking to create any sort
Speaker 1: of integration, but at the end of it, he's talking
Speaker 1: about having a phone where as soon as you turn
Speaker 1: your phone on, you're signed into these different apps that
Speaker 1: normally you would have to sign in individually. I would
Speaker 1: wager that Facebook is hedging its bets. I would wager
Speaker 1: that that's saying two things that are opposite of each other.
Speaker 1: That is, that is integration. I mean that is what
Speaker 1: that that that's true. But what I'm what I'm thinking
Speaker 1: is that it's it's entirely possible that uh, Facebook is
Speaker 1: considering a phone of its own and making the other
Speaker 1: apps so integral into their own environments that really you
Speaker 1: could do you could be that immersed regardless of what
Speaker 1: platform you're on. That's kind of how I hear it.
Speaker 1: But yes, directly speaking, he was saying that. And by
Speaker 1: the way, u X, for those of you who don't know,
Speaker 1: is user experience because I guess you e sounds kind
Speaker 1: of lame. I guess maybe I don't know someone's going
Speaker 1: to write in and explain what you actually means. And
Speaker 1: that's why that's true. It could be taken maybe could
Speaker 1: just be anyway. So that's what that's what Zuckerberg had
Speaker 1: to say to tech Crunch. Um, you can actually read
Speaker 1: more of it at tech Crunch. They they've got a
Speaker 1: whole thing on it there. But it's Yeah, it's interesting
Speaker 1: to see the kind of dance that that Facebook is
Speaker 1: doing right now around the whole mobile phone issue. And Uh,
Speaker 1: what I'm curious to hear about is whether our listeners
Speaker 1: would consider buying a Facebook branded phone. Are you concerned
Speaker 1: about the privacy issues? It may be that the privacy
Speaker 1: issues we've talked about aren't really issues. It may be
Speaker 1: that there is no danger of that. It would surprise me,
Speaker 1: but it's possible. Uh, would you find that sort of
Speaker 1: phone interesting? Are you the kind of person who you
Speaker 1: don't have a smartphone, but you would like your regular
Speaker 1: phone to do something more than what it already does
Speaker 1: you kind of want something in the middle. Does this
Speaker 1: actually sound like an interesting device to you? Or are
Speaker 1: you the kind of person who you would just prefer
Speaker 1: to have a Facebook app on your existing phone and
Speaker 1: not have like a fully integrated phone. Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: for me it would it would be something like the Ladder.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm more interested in the multiple functionality of you know,
Speaker 1: as a full on, full fledged smartphone. UM. The idea
Speaker 1: of having Facebook so fully integrated to the point where
Speaker 1: they can be of more have more control over the experience,
Speaker 1: UM seems like a good idea if you're really into
Speaker 1: Facebook all that much. But uh, you know, there it's
Speaker 1: going to be interesting when diaspora or diaspora actually starts
Speaker 1: up to see if there is the uh an x
Speaker 1: this or a co joining thing where people are on
Speaker 1: that network too, and if you know, other social networks
Speaker 1: can start making inroads on Facebook's turf. UM, I think
Speaker 1: more people would be inclined to buy something on which
Speaker 1: they could use more than one social networking service. It's
Speaker 1: definitely an uphill battle because the biggest, the biggest draw
Speaker 1: to Facebook is that everybody's on Facebook. Yes, you know,
Speaker 1: everyone's on everything else too. You would have to you
Speaker 1: would have to have a mass exodus, really, or at
Speaker 1: least you would have to have a lot of people
Speaker 1: change in order for it to really take effect, or
Speaker 1: the other way around it is you could get you
Speaker 1: could convince new users, people who are not not yet
Speaker 1: integrated into some online social network to adopt a different
Speaker 1: model than Facebook. Then you have then you're going to
Speaker 1: be able to survive. It's just gonna be something that
Speaker 1: you have to play the waiting game. You essentially wait
Speaker 1: for all the Facebook users to die out and then
Speaker 1: you become the new thing. But yeah, getting people to
Speaker 1: move is really tough. Anyway, we have run out of times.
Speaker 1: We're gonna wrap this up. It will be interesting to
Speaker 1: see if Facebook does come out with a branded phone,
Speaker 1: and if it does, how successful or unsuccessful and ultimately
Speaker 1: will be Uh. Facebook's managed to triumph in the face
Speaker 1: of adversity many times before, so we'll see. And if
Speaker 1: you guys have any questions or comments, especially if you
Speaker 1: want to tell us about whether or not you would
Speaker 1: adopt a Facebook phone, let us know on Twitter or
Speaker 1: on Facebook. Our handle at both is tech Stuff hs W,
Speaker 1: or you can email us. Our address is tech Stuff
Speaker 1: at how stuff works dot com and Chris and I
Speaker 1: will talk to you again really soon if you're a
Speaker 1: tech stuff and be sure to check us out on
Speaker 1: Twitter Tech Stuff hs WSR handle, and you can also
Speaker 1: find us on Facebook at Facebook dot com slash tech
Speaker 1: Stuff h s W. For more on this and thousands
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