Facebook Mobilizes Its Army
Facebook has renewed its mobile effort not by building a phone, but by adding more features to its existing app. It's also made it more consistent across platforms, thrown in new ideas for mobile commerce and let third parties in on its mobile data feeds. Meanwhile, T-Mobile slapped a 4G label on HSPA+, a jury smacked a file-sharer with a huge fine, and the U.S. government stacked the deck -- according to Google.
Those phone rumors once again returned to haunt another Facebook announcement. For the last month or so, any time Facebook has had something new to present to the world, talk would again pick up about how the social networking site might one day decide to build its own cellphone, and the company would have to throw another bucket of ice water on everyone by saying "Uh, no" -- this time in those exact words, in fact.
But the latest announcement did have to do with mobile. Specifically, Facebook is shining up its mobile apps, making them more or less equal in features and abilities across the Android the iPhone platforms, and letting third-party developers get a taste of its mobile data and activity streams. All in all, the whole thing makes Facebook mobile act a little more like Facebook desktop.
One of the big new features is Deals, a new mobile commerce feature that trims the idea of mobile marketing down to the barest essentials a consumer would want to know: What exactly is on sale near the place I'm standing right now? Post your location by checking in to any given place, and a number of nearby businesses offering discounts will pop up on the screen. To get the discount, just walk over and show your phone.
There's more: Facebook Connect will go mobile, you can now see Groups through the mobile apps, the Android version gets Places, and third parties will be able to drink from the mobile activity stream.
Even though the announcement was all about mobile, a Facebook app for iPad was not on the agenda, and when he was asked specifically about it, CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed why: The iPad isn't mobile, he said. It's a computer.
(source: www.ecommercetimes.com)
