A week and a half ago Facebook went public after many months of speculation, and managed to pass the $100 billion mark with its valuation.  But reality soon caught up to the hype, and the share’s opening price of $38 very rapidly declined to the $32 it’s trading for today.

The $100 billion question is whether or not Facebook will be able live up to its valuation, and in order to do that the company will have to come up with a much better way of monetizing its massive user base.  A few fresh string of speculation suggest that mobile may be the key part the social network’s future course of action.

Facebook might decide to follow the footsteps of Google and do something rather similar: introduce a mobile phone with second-to-none integration with its core platform.  A Facebook phone could offer users a very distinguishable way to access the network, while at the same time it would – at least in theory – justify some of the investments the company has made in this space. This device’s camera would natively support Instagram, incorporate components from Glancee, a location-based discovery service Facebook also acquired, these apps could be pre-installed, and a number of other features would enjoy the same benefits.

Apple Insider reported that Facebook hired more than half a dozen former members of Apple’s iPhone team recently, and the social media firm already has some experience in this industry. Agreements with HTC and INQ Mobile both produced phones with tight Facebook integration, albeit not very popular ones.

If this is the route the social media firm is going to take, there will be some very challenges that it will have to overcome along the way. Is Facebook  mature enough of a platform to justify the purchase of a dedicated piece of hardware, especially in light of the pre-existing  options?