Phonebook? Facebook Denies Smartphone Rumor

One of the biggest stories to emerge over the weekend was the rumor of the Facebook phone. TechCrunch's Michael Arrington Sunday reported that the social networking giant had plans for a Facebook-brand smartphone utilizing third-party hardware.

But wait, why would Facebook want to build a phone? Well, Arrington's source says that around the time the first rumors about the Nexus One hit, Facebook started to think more about deeper Facebook integration in phones. When the social network heard about a supposed Google phone it became more worried about the power Apple and Google held with iOS and Android, because to do stuff like integrating with contacts lists, etc., Facebook would need full control of the operating system.