Fresh rumors about a possible Facebook branded phone have resurfaced of late, thereby hinting that the popular social networking is apparently working towards making a foray into the mobile computing arena.

According to a New York Times report, Facebook is keen on bringing its own branded handset to the market as it apparently feels the needs for a strong mobile presence, especially in the wake of the fact that, as per April estimates, as many as 500 million Facebook users - on an average - access the social networking site through mobile devices every month.

As per the NY Times report, citing unnamed Facebook employees as well as other sources `in the know' of the company's plans, it is highly likely that the social network may come up with its branded handset by next year.

Going by the information shared by the sources, Facebook is quite serious about its phone related project - dubbed Project "Buffy" - which the company began in collaboration with HTC, but has seemingly extended it to "other smartphone projects," with the company having created "a team of seasoned hardware engineers who have built the devices before."

While the sources have revealed that Facebook has hired a few ex-iPhone engineers from Apple, the company has not made any official disclosure about its smartphone-related plans, and has merely stated that it is "working across the entire mobile industry; with operators, hardware manufacturers, OS providers, and application developers."