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Anyone who has been around the Android scene for a while knows why we think the Facebook phone is just not an exciting prospect. We saw this attempted by HTC, whose Chacha and Salsa — while noble attempts — simply offered nothing of worth other than quirkiness.
Turns out, we simply didn’t need a Facebook phone, especially when it’s easy enough to download the app and put shortcuts on the home screen. But that isn’t going to stop Facebook from at least keeping experiments going with the idea behind closed doors.
The latest news out of the company’s secretive division is that they are exploring modularity in smartphones. There’s even a patent that talks about it, though no details on what they’re cooking up can be had other than the fact that it’s something modular.
This might come as no surprise to anyone keeping an eye on the executive ranks over at Facebook, what with Google’s former head of ATAP — the unit which was working on ARA before it died — heading the division.
Of course, it’s entirely possible that Facebook isn’t looking to make this move from a consumer product standpoint. These experimental divisions tend to work on future-facing projects for the sake of innovation and science more than anything. Of course, should the result of that innovation be a profit-driving product they wouldn’t hesitate to work it into their core business, but right now it’s just an idea, and it doesn’t really ever have to be more than that.
[via The Verge]
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