The ‘Facebook phone’ rumours refuse to die, with Bloomberg reporting that the social networking giant is working with mobile handset manufacturer INQ Mobile on two smartphones. The report claims the devices are due to be introduced in the first half of 2011 in Europe (in March or April via several operators) and will see a US launch (perhaps by AT&T) in the second half of next year (July or August).

The Internet rumour mill has been awash with speculation this week that Facebook is preparing the launch of its own device. TechCrunch broke the news at the weekend, claiming that the company is “building the software for the phone and working with a third party to actually build the hardware.” Facebook denied that it was building a phone, but did admit that “almost all experiences would be better if they were social, so integrating deeply into existing platforms and operating systems is a good way to enable this.” Facebook declined to comment on Bloomberg’s report today regarding specific phones, but said it continues to work with INQ Mobile, which has previously sold phones with Facebook features, along with other companies. Notably, Li-Ka-Shing, billionaire chairman of Hutchison Whampoa (backer of INQ), has invested in Facebook. “We’ve been working with INQ for a couple of years now to help them build a deeply integrated Facebook experience on their devices,” Palo Alto, California-based Facebook said in an e-mailed statement to Bloomberg. The statement then repeated the company’s previous comment: “While we can’t speak for their future product development plans, we can say that our view is that almost all experiences would be better if they were social.” Bloomberg’s sources claim that one of the new phones is expected to feature a Qwerty-style keyboard and a touchscreen, while the other would only have a touchscreen and resemble the iPhone. It’s still not clear though whether Bloomberg’s report focuses on simply an extension of the existing relationship between Facebook and INQ, or whether it stands out as a significant move by Facebook to ramp up its presence in the mobile device sector.