Facebook Wants Nokia To Be Its Mobile Friend

social networking

Facebook Wednesday acknowledged that it's seeking more partnerships with phone manufacturers and wireless service providers, although the company did not disclose details. Facebook has been in talks with Nokia, the world's largest mobile handset maker, about an alliance for several months, according to a story in The Wall Street Journal Thursday. Other published reports say the company is also in discussions with Apple, Motorola and BlackBerry maker Research In Motion.

BlackBerry and Apple iPhone users already can post Facebook updates and send messages to friends using their mobile phones. The latest discussions with Nokia and other manufacturers would allow Facebook to embed more of its social networking technology within mobile devices, such as allowing users to merge their phone contact lists with their Facebook friends. The Journal story said Facebook is also working with Palm to build social networking features into the new WebOS mobile operating system Palm is developing.

The INQ1 phone from U.K. telecommunications company Hutchinson Whampoa already lets Facebook subscribers combine Facebook profile pictures with phone address books.

Facebook has 7 million mobile users in the U.S., according to Nielsen Co. In December, the number of worldwide visitors to the Facebook site reached 222 million, twice that of one year earlier, according to ComScore.

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