HTC is partnering up with the world's largest social network to create and release the first Facebook smartphone, according to a recent Bloomberg report.
(Photo: Reuters / Thierry Roge)A Facebook page is displayed on a computer screen April 21, 2010.The Facebook phone rumor has been swirling around for a long time, and now it seems that the publication has hinted at the first real confirmation of the device's existence.
The Bloomberg report states that HTC plans to release this smartphone in mid-2013. The company also created the HTC Status that was released in February of 2011 and featured a built-in Facebook button. This next device is likely to take that idea to a whole other level in terms of integrating its hardware with the social network.
This smartphone will essentially assist Facebook in getting craftier with its advertising and allow it to begin to earn profits off of its mobile user base. The company already receives a majority of its traffic through mobile devices; however, these hits come without ads from Facebook.
HTC also seems to be planning on releasing a powerful smartphone on Verizon that could be a successor to the HTC Rezound.
This device surfaced on the popular GLBenchmark tool website and its model number is HTC6435, which seems to make it a follow-up smartphone to the HTC Rezound "HTC6425."
The GLBenchmark also revealed that this new HTC handset features a 1.5GHz processor, different from the Snapdragon S4 included on the Ice Cream Sandwich-powered One X smartphone released earlier this year on AT&T.
This device even topped the S4 chipset, with more than 120 FPS in the Egypt Offscreen and Pro 720p tests.
It also reportedly features a display with a 1794 x 1080 resolution, which means it will be 1080p.
Verizon Wireless is rumored to be the carrier to offer the new HTC handset, so it will most likely be a 4G LTE device on par with the One X, Galaxy S3, and upcoming iPhone.
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