Fresh rumors on next Samsung Nexus, new HTC Facebook phone offered by Digitimes

Let's offer a little context right off the bat -- Taiwanese tech rumor site Digitimes has an at-best patchy record when it comes to reports on unannounced devices. So naturally we'd recommend taking these latest Samsung and HTC rumors with a hearty pinch of salt.

First off, it's reported that Samsung has once again been chosen by Google to produce its next Nexus handset -- the follow-up to the Galaxy Nexus that's expected to appear in late 2012. ​Digitimes ​says that Samsung's position as the leading Android smartphone manufacturer means Google will continue to co-operate with it on future Nexus phones, leveraging "its ability to control the supply of key components", according to the site's sources. This is the first rumored (and of course entirely unconfirmed) information we've heard regarding the 2012 Nexus, which would be the third Google flagship phone to come out of Samsung. The phone would presumably be the reference device for the next version of Android, said to be codenamed "Jelly Bean."

In other news, ​Digitimes​ also reports that HTC and Facebook are preparing to team up on another Facebook phone, which will come to market "in the third quarter of 2012 at the earliest." The two companies co-operated on the HTC ChaCha (Status) and Salsa last year, though neither device was met with much success. The new phone, which is said to be running Android, "will have a platform exclusive to Facebook to enable and integrate all functions available on the social networking site", according to the site's sources. That's pretty vague, but based on the direction Facebook's taking its official Android app, we wouldn't be surprised to see Facebook integration baked into the native camera and messaging apps, at the very least.

So there you have it -- two rumors, both completely unconfirmed. We'll have to see how things pan out in the months ahead, but we wouldn't be too shocked if either of these turned out to be legit. We've seen some pretty aggressive expansion out of Facebook recently, and we're sure no-one would be surprised to see yet another Samsung Nexus.

Be sure to give us your take on this latest batch of rumors down in the comments.

Source: Digitimes