Making phones is extremely difficult. Even Google didn't do a great job of making a profit off its flagship, in-house line of Android phones despite them being

Making phones is extremely difficult. Even Google didn't do a great job of making a profit off its flagship, in-house line of Android phones despite them being the best Android experience available. Apple owns almost all the profit-share in the market and the rest is mostly coming from low-margin, commodity phones. Facebook doesn't need the data of price-conscious people willing to penny pinch to buy a cheap-o Facebook phone. They need to hoover up the data of iPhone users. That's where the valuable advertising bucks are.