Facebook shoots down branded phone rumours

Company says it is not looking to launch a handset

Facebook has dismissed a report from news site City A.M. that it is preparing to launch a branded handset with hardware vendor HTC at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next month.

The report claims that the handset will feature Facebook's branding and colour scheme and will be based on the Android operating system.

However, Dan Rose, head of business development at Facebook, said at a company event in London that the site is not planning to launch a branded device and that the handset in question is simply using existing integration tools.

"This is really just another example of a manufacturer who has taken our public APIs and integrated them into their device in an interesting way," Rose was quoted as saying by Reuters.

Reports of a branded smartphone from Facebook are hardly a recent development. The company has been connected to speculation on a handset launch dating back to early last year.

Reports surfaced in September suggesting that Facebook was working with INQ Mobile on two branded handset models.

Facebook said at the time that it was not looking to launch a branded phone but rather to integrate with a number of different manufacturers.