Facebook, the biggest social networking site has finally reached a decision on whether or not they would be joining the smartphone market. If the report published in AllThingsD is true, then the answer for this question would be a resounding "Yes."

Facebook reportedly closed a deal with the Taiwanese-based firm, HTC in order to develop this new Facebook-centered smartphone. The code name for this project is "BUffy" based on the popular television series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. "Slayer" is also a shortened version of a previous project name in Facebook called the "social layer". Facebook plans to have a modified version of Android in order to integrate Facebook settings in the smartphone and also to support HTML5 as a platform for applications. Facebook was also considering Korean-based Samsung as their potential partner for this project. Though that is the case, HTC was the chosen partner in the end but this Facebook phone would probably be released 12-18 months after sealing this deal.

This news about releasing a Facebook phone was met with criticisms and skeptical responses due to the fact that most people are not really getting the reason on why this project should push through. Forbes even released an interesting article entitled "5 Reasons Why Facebook's Phone Will Fail" which outlines the reasons why this venture would not succeed. The article highlights that people are not really keen on using Facebook despite the fact that the social networking site has millions of users. Having millions of users do not necessarily mean that they "love" using Facebook up to the point of integrating it with their mobile devices. This would also mean that there is no market for this specific phone and the company could encounter Android troubles which could limit Android features for this specific phone.

HTC and Facebook did not comment about the Buffy phone plans. Nevertheless, Facebook released this interesting statement about the company's view about their mobile future: "Our mobile strategy is simple: We think every mobile device is better if it is deeply social. We're working across the entire mobile industry; with operators, hardware manufacturers, OS providers, and application developers to bring powerful social experiences to more people around the world."