Why Facebook shouldn't make a phone

Today in class we talked about how Facebook wants to create a smartphone of their own, but the general conclusion from the class was that it was a stupid idea. Part of the reason that Facebook wants to get into the mobile device industry, is because of how investors were hesitant to invest in Facebook because they are worried about the lack of a strategy to make money from users on mobile devices. There is no way that Facebook would be able to compete against Apple, and now potentially Google. Apple products work hand in hand with each other, so the more that you have the more compatibility you have with them. RIM a company that was fully engrossed in mobile devices couldn't, and still can't compete with Apple in the market, and they were once dominating the market! So why does Facebook think that their phone will sell over other phones that have already established their presence in the market? In fact there are already existing Facebook applications available for phones that use the Android or the Apple market. Google is a new dangerous looking competitor after their recent acquisition, but even then nobody can predict if they will have success against the leading giant Apple.

I feel like Facebook is responding to Google, because Google created Google+ in order to combat Facebook and other social media sites. Buying Motorola actually made sense for Google, because of how many other things they have than the Google search engine. Google already has their own email service, as well as Google docs, Android Operating System and their own web browser Google Chrome, while Facebook has.... Facebook? Facebook will have to come out with a complete WOW factor if they want their smartphone to sell, because I don't think that their brand name alone will help them with sales, even as their image is currently tarnished from their unfortunate stock drop after the company went public. The poor strategic planning that initially scared investors will be much worse if Facebook actually decides to continue with their plan of creating their own Smartphone. Another reason that Facebook could be trying to enter the mobile device market, could be the result of Mark Zuckerberg's ego. His movie The Social Network sort of showed how he created Facebook just because his ex-girlfriend bashed his ego, and if this is the case, then he could simply ruin Facebook because of his ego.