Sep 20, 2010 06:12 GMT  ·  By

Social networking site Facebook is rumored to plan the launch of a mobile phone, one that would run under its own software, and which would come with integration of easy access to the social media destination.

According to the guys over at Techcrunch, the company is working closely with a third party for the building of the hardware for the device, while developing in-house software for it.

It appears that Facebook would be interested in a tight integration with the contact list on the phone, as well as with other core functions of the device.

In other words, we should see Facebook bringing on the market what should be a true “social phone,” something that previous projects did not manage to do.

Not to mention that it would be a rather low priced handset, mainly aimed at keeping people connected at all times with their Facebook world.

However, this is only in theory, and nothing more than a rumor for the time being, especially with Facebook claiming that it does not plan the launch of a mobile phone, not now, not ever.

“The story, which originated in Techcrunch, is not accurate,” Facebook spokesperson Jaime Schopflin told Mashable.

The company does not deny working on a delivery of a better experience to mobile phone users, and a deep integration on existing platforms and mobile OSes out there.

Some examples in this direction would be Connect for iPhone, which integrates with contact list, or the INQ1 phone, which already comes with tight Facebook integration.

“The bottom line is that whenever we work on a deep integration, people want to call it a ‘Facebook Phone’ because that’s such an attractive soundbite, but building phones is just not what we do,” the spokesperson concluded.

In all fairness, the original rumor did claim that Facebook is actually working on the software that would be present on the said device, and not on the building of the device itself.

Even so, this does not exclude the possibility that a Facebook device would be delivered to the market, especially since the company is interested in better integration of its services on handsets.

For the time being, however, no Facebook phone would be headed for shelves, though it should not come as a surprise if things prove otherwise in the end.

After all, other heavy weight companies out there made the move after strongly denying plans to do so, including Google (we're referring here to the Nexus One, of course), or Microsoft (with the failed KIN experiment).