In a not too distant past, the maniacal genius we know as Mark Zuckerberg called an “Important Conference,” which many a smart phone nerd all-but assumed would be used to confirm rumors of Facebook’s plans for further world domination with their own branded cell phone. Well, just as fast as that rumor started, it was de-friended (had to), when the announcement was actually made for a new type of messaging system — never fear though kind friends, the rumor was never kyboshed, more just pushed to the side and all questions averted.

You see, as it turned out, Facebook was avoiding answering about said “Facebook Phone” because they were in fact working on numerous phones, building their OS in house, while outsourcing the hardware manufacturing to 3rd party sources like everyone else.

Well, fast forward to 2011, and HTC has now come out of the woodwork with their plans to launch a Facebook-branded phone — or should I say phones: The “Salsa” and “ChaCha”, but wait, there’s more. Facebook posted the following on their blog today:

“In addition to these new phones from INQ and HTC, you’ll also be seeing similar deep Facebook integration on dozens of other devices over the course of this year. Some manufacturers will be highlighting Facebook as a part of their phones’ on-screen interfaces, and others will use our brand as an element of the device hardware itself.”

Yup, it’s official. Facebook is no longer just an online vice.