I said earlier today [1] that mobile proposes a strategic risk to Facebook as they don't control the mobile platform like Apple or Google.
This is really the best they can do to change that. I believe they're attempting to create a base mobile experience and use that as a selling point for mobile devices. On iOS for example there are standard apps for Mail, Maps, Search (browser), etc. I wouldn't be surprised if you see a suite of apps from Facebook to be the base functionality for some phone.
The next logical step would be to then bundle that on something and call it a Facebook Phone as a branding exercise. Carriers can bundle software, on non-IOS anyway, why not Facebook?
Mozilla ends money through the selling the default search engine on Firefox. Why can't Facebook do the same thing?
Part of this mobile strategy is to create a mobile platform (aka Project Spartan [2]).
Good for Facebook. At least they realize the risk they face.
My Android phone (HTC Desire) recently broke and I got a old iPhone 3G. One feature (among a lot of others) I really missed was being able to combine a contact with his facebook account. This feature could really make my next purchase be an android phone and not something else.
This is really the best they can do to change that. I believe they're attempting to create a base mobile experience and use that as a selling point for mobile devices. On iOS for example there are standard apps for Mail, Maps, Search (browser), etc. I wouldn't be surprised if you see a suite of apps from Facebook to be the base functionality for some phone.
The next logical step would be to then bundle that on something and call it a Facebook Phone as a branding exercise. Carriers can bundle software, on non-IOS anyway, why not Facebook?
Mozilla ends money through the selling the default search engine on Firefox. Why can't Facebook do the same thing?
Part of this mobile strategy is to create a mobile platform (aka Project Spartan [2]).
Good for Facebook. At least they realize the risk they face.
[1]: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4016950
[2]: http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/28/this-sure-looks-a-lot-like-...