The Facebook phone was (and still is) a solid concept many are trying to get right, from the INQ days to the HTC ChaCha, HTC Salsa from the 2011 MWC, and more recently to the rumors of Facebook teaming up with HTC to deliver the “real” Facebook phone.

According to a recent New York Times report, Facebook has allegedly hired “more than half a dozen former Apple software and hardware engineers” who worked both on the iPhone and the iPad, as the company’s “third effort” to create the Facebook phone. Facebook did not confirm nor deny the reports but, according to a Facebook employee who preferred to remain anonymous, “Mark is worried that if he doesn’t create a mobile phone in the near future that Facebook will simply become an app on other mobile platforms”.

However, as many have pointed out, building hardware is rather difficult especially for a company that has no experience with that. Still, having Facebook’s value in mind, they could always just team up with a smartphone maker of simply buy one for their own needs (like Research in Motion for instance, as the New York Times report points it out).

Let us know which Facebook phone would you buy: the one built by Facebook, the one made by former Apple engineers, one made by HTC or one made by another company?

Source: The New York Times