Bloomberg reported that the phone will debut in mid-2013. In that case, an announcement now would make sense. Talks of this phone have been around since November 2011, though HTC and Facebook have collaborated earlier and launched the ChaCha and Salsa phones with a dedicated Facebook button and deep integration of the social network.
Its apps for existing phones have already been expanded to include many features found in other handsets, such as messaging and photo sharing through the recent purchase of Instagram.