What a Facebook phone could mean for social gaming

TechCrunch has reported that Facebook is secretly working on a mobile phone device, having staffed up a team of elite engineers to work on the potential project that could bring a cellular phone with Facebook capabilities right into your pocket. While this rumor hasn't yet be confirmed, we can't help but wonder what this could mean for social gaming.

If Facebook creates a phone, it would most likely mean the creation of a Facebook-engineered mobile operating system that works on whichever hardware manufacturer Facebook strikes a deal with, similar to how Google's Android operating system works on different devices. Facebook is already a platform, meaning that companies are operating upon it with the use of APIs, interconnectivity, and applications. A mobile device would definitely not be out of the question, since Facebook already is intimately familiar with running and monetizing applications.