Since the introduction of Apple’s iADs Apple has been pushing for more efficient ways to track user habits to attract advertising money. In fact during the introduction of iADs Steve Jobs noted that establishing rich ad content was one of the main reasons for moving to HTML5. The demo was mostly lost on the journalists that were present at the event (and those that watched the live streaming) as an ad service is not exactly a selling point to consumers. On top of that one of the methods that Apple used to help advertisers track user preferences for targeted ads, the Unique Device Identifier (UDID), was quickly abused by app developers as well as others to tie a person to a device for tracking and also to scavenge personal information (like contacts). It was a mess for iPhone owners and Apple alike.

There are sometimes items that show up in the market that seem to point to something on the horizon that could be quite interesting. Although when we first saw the news that Facebook had picked up another Apple employee (this time the UI designer for iWeb and Numbers) we did not think much about it. Now however, there is something else that is on the horizon and that seems to counter some information that we had before about a possible Facebook phone. This is the news that RIM might be considering selling off their handset business.

The internet has been flooded with talk about a Facebook branded phone (both for and against). There have been rumors of purchases, new hires and more floating around all that seem to point to the fabled device. We have talked about some of the market concerns with a device like this (mostly privacy and user data collection), but many of these concerns relate to the US where laws on consumer protection and privacy are still in their infancy. We took the time to speak with Paul Amsellem, CEO of Mobile Network Group about the drive behind and the importance (to Facebook) of this device.