Vodafone and Facebook to create smartphone together

Vodafone and Facebook have joined forces to create a low-cost smartphone.

The Vodafone 555 Blue, built by Alcatel Lucent, is dedicated solely to Facebook and is aimed at younger consumers and those in newer smartphone markets such as India, South Africa and Turkey.

The phone features a full QWERTY keyboard along with a highly customised operating system that places Facebook functionality at the centre of the phone.

Text messages and Facebook messages share the same inbox, whilst the phone also has a special button for sharing on the social networking site.

The phone will sell for around £60 and will be marketed as the first Facebook device for pre-pay customers.

Experts say that the new phone is part of Facebook’s bid to reach 1bn users – 250m more than it has at the moment. Indeed, Facebook have openly said that mobile is one of its priorities for this year.

Facebook has worked with other mobile phone manufacturers to build customised devices, but Vodafone say that their phone is the most efficient yet. It also runs on 2.5G networks, as opposed to most smartphones, which require connection to a 3G network.

Patrick Chomet, group terminals director at Vodafone, told one website: “If we do great products that enable the customer to have great experiences, they will see the added value of Vodafone.

“We hope to sell millions …  Anything below millions will be disappointing.”