Facebook has hired more than a half dozen former Apple software and hardware engineers who were on the iPhone, and one who worked on the iPad, to build the Facebook Phone, The New York Times reports.

Instead of posting job listings for the Facebook phone online, CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his team are recruiting employees for the phone by hand, according to the report. Zuckerberg is peppering former Apple engineers with very specific questions about the iPhone, too — including the types of chips used.

The Facebook phone project has been rebooted a number of times because the company only recently discovered it needed to bring in people with phone-making experience, according to the report. One Facebook employee told The New York Times that Facebook originally thought it could figure out hardware development on its own.

Here's the money quote from the story;

“Mark is worried that if he doesn’t create a mobile phone in the near future that Facebook will simply become an app on other mobile platforms,” one Facebook employee said.

Facebook has quietly assembled all the important bits of a mobile phone. It just released its new camera application that uploads directly to Facebook, its own messenger service, and it's reported that Facebook is courting mobile web browser developer Opera.

Facebook also plans to launch its own app store. The Facebook Platform is already one of the most attractive platforms out there, and Facebook could easily migrate (or integrate) those existing developers into the mobile app store.

滬江英語快訊：最近風(fēng)頭正盛的Facebook又傳出了聘請?zhí)O果工程師為其研制智能機的新聞。據(jù)紐約時報報道，F(xiàn)acebook已經(jīng)聘用了超過6位曾從事iPhone研發(fā)的前蘋果軟件和硬件工程師，以及一位曾從事iPad開發(fā)工作的工程師。扎克伯格擔(dān)心如果近期未能打造出一款手機，F(xiàn)acebook將只是其它移動平臺上的一款應(yīng)用。作為一家新上市的公司，F(xiàn)acebook必須找到新的營收來源；也擔(dān)心在移動這一頗有前景的領(lǐng)域落后，研制自家智能手機只是一個開端。

相關(guān)事件報道：互聯(lián)網(wǎng)企業(yè)插足手機市場如今已不是什么新鮮事。本月中旬，百度宣布與長虹合作推出百度云手機，打算在手機市場一展拳腳。百度長虹共推平價智能手機>>>

谷歌去年8月宣布以125億美元收購摩托羅拉，也在本月獲得中國商務(wù)部的審批。商務(wù)部批準，谷歌終收購摩托羅拉>>>