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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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Following today's introduction of Facebook Home, a new people-focused integration layer for Android devices, Fortune has published an interview with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in which he discusses a number of topics including the rivalry between Apple and Google in the mobile market.

In Zuckerberg's view, the open nature of Google that has allowed Facebook to build Home offers a great opportunity for advances in the user experience that are considerably more difficult to achieve within iOS given Apple's control over the platform.
I think that Google has this opportunity in the next year or two to start doing the things that are way better than what can be done on iPhone through the openness of their platform. We'd love to offer this on iPhone and we just can't today. And we will work with Apple to do the best experience that we can within what they want, but I think that a lot of people who really like Facebook--and just judging from the numbers, people are spending a fifth of their time in phones on Facebook, that's a lot of people. This could really tip things in that direction. We'll have to see how it plays out.
zuckerberg_facebook_home.jpg
Zuckerberg shared a similar sentiment with Wired, noting that the question of whether Facebook Home would be on iOS within two years was "above my pay grade".
Android is growing quickly, and we're excited that the platform is open and that it allows us to build these great experiences. I think that this is really good for Google too. Something like this could encourage a lot of people to get Android phones, because I think people really care about Facebook. In a lot of ways, this is one of the best Facebook experiences that you can get. Of course, a lot of people also love iPhones--I love mine, and I would like to be able to deliver Facebook Home there as well.
Apple and Facebook have at times had a strained relationship, as evidenced by difficulties related to Apple's now-defunct Ping social networking feature in iTunes, although the two companies have recently been working more closely together with system-wide Facebook integration appearing in iOS 6 and OS X Mountain Lion.

Article Link: Zuckerberg: Android's Openness Offers Opportunity for 'Way Better' Experience Than iPhone
 

subsonix

macrumors 68040
Feb 2, 2008
3,551
79
iOS already have Facebook integration, I do wonder how many users there are that truly feel that it's a "great experience" to have a FB home screen.
 

DavidLeblond

macrumors 68020
Jan 6, 2004
2,321
599
Raleigh, NC
while it maybe more open, it's still not a better experience than iPhone

Meh, I think "experience" is largely based on your personal tastes. Personally Android is a pain in the ass to use, but I know people who love it and think iPhones are a pain. It's like saying someone is wrong for not liking a particular ice cream flavor.
 

oneMadRssn

macrumors 603
Sep 8, 2011
5,958
13,938
He's probably right about the time, I do spend about 20% of the screen time of my phone in the facebook app. However, my goal is to shrink this number, not grow it. I don't want MORE facebook. I want less facebook, more efficiently. And I especially want to keep it easy to ignore facebook (by using willpower to not open the app).
 

Paradoxally

macrumors 68000
Feb 4, 2011
1,964
2,739
You can actually have a "much better" experience without crappy ads, just use intelliscreen X on iOS. You can set the lockscreen to give you a facebook feed. So you don't have to 'settle' for an inferior Android device while stalking your friends.
 

Stella

macrumors G3
Apr 21, 2003
8,837
6,334
Canada
If customers want a more open phone they'll start buying Android.. and Apple will respond by "opening up" iOS more - i.e., exposing more API and relaxing its AppStore rules.

No surprise that Zuckerberg is talking up Android really given today's announcement...

Apple could improve the UI, especially Settings. For example, in Safari settings, why is the option "Private Browsing" there? It takes multiple key presses, surely this is better placed within Safari.app itself?

Another good example is VPN.. to turn it on -> Settings -> General -> VPN -> On
 
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peteullo

macrumors regular
Dec 13, 2009
245
57
Scranton, PA
I sometimes wonder if these people understand what great "experience" actually is. Things may look very cool but that doesn't always translate to a great experience. Simplicity is the most beautiful experience there is.. IMO of course!
 

shartypants

macrumors 6502a
Jul 27, 2010
922
60
I already spend way too much time on Facebook, why would I want it to take over my phone??
 
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