Some time back, the internet blogosphere went wild raving about the possibility of an exclusive smartphone being developed secretly by Facebook. The speculations were put to rest by none other than Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg himself.

Later, HTC unveiled Android-based HTC ChaCha and HTC Salsa. Both phones featured dedicated Facebook buttons that allowed instant access to the popular social networking website, with Salsa being a regular touchscreen phone while ChaCha included a QWERTY keyboard as well in addition to a touchscreen. This official HTC-Facebook joint effort further subdued the hype regarding “Facebook’s own phone” mantra.

Two years after we first heard about the so called Facebook phone, the rumour mill is up and running again with juicier rumours than ever before. According to unnamed industry sources, HTC and Facebook are collaborating on the development of an exclusive customized smartphone that will amalgamate all of Facebook’s features with Android operating system.

Speculations are rife that the Facebook phone will be available in third quarter of 2012. However, the device has the potential to be a major success regardless of the time of release due to Facebook’s loyal fan following and its unmatched brand strength.

Source: TechCrunch