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Facebook Recruiting Former Apple iPhone Engineers for Facebook Phone
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As much as I'd like to believe this will be a total flop, it does scare me a bit as an Apple shareholder. Zuck is smarter than people are giving him credit for here. In my mind, there's a chance that the FB iPhone app was intentionally made to run like garbage.
Then again, we saw how apple did when they dove into social networking, so...
Then again, we saw how apple did when they dove into social networking, so...
Really?
Unbelievable!
Find one thing to do and do it well. The world will beat a path to your door. Expand beyond your expertise and fall flat on your face.
Unbelievable!
Find one thing to do and do it well. The world will beat a path to your door. Expand beyond your expertise and fall flat on your face.
Clearly they see the future as mobile and are trying to make use of ad revenue in the mobile space in a way that they are not now. However they are going about it the wrong way and here's why:
- The mobile market is already mature and oversaturated with players and they are late to the party. Quite simply a Facebook phone is not needed (by the market). Even a player more familiar with this space, Microsoft, is learning what a hard hill it is to climb when you have allowed your competitors to get way out in front of you and lock people into their app store ecosystems.
- A Facebook phone would have to really wow people with some sort of new technology. Being just another cell phone with another operating system isn't going to cut it. People are vested in the current ecosystems. It will take a truly revolutionary product to pull them off of that....I'm talking foldout bendable screens...something that starts small and gets larger when you fold it out..some sort of truly mind-blowing technology. And I just don't see that coming from Facebook...I really don't.
- Cannibalization. Okay, so you make a Facebook phone. Then what? All those people out there are using other phones currently to log into Facebook. So what happens to your current app? You going to make it so that the only way to get into Facebook is through your own phone? No? Then what's the point. What is the compelling reason to get people to buy your product? Why do they need it over what they already have now?
- Synergy. So, both Android and Apple have moved into the Tablet space to build synergy between their products. So are we going to see a Facebook tablet as well? Again, why? It all comes down to that compelling factor again. If you are going to pull people away from the existing ecosystems, you're going to need a real compelling reason...a new OS won't be enough. Just ask Palm.
- The mobile market is already mature and oversaturated with players and they are late to the party. Quite simply a Facebook phone is not needed (by the market). Even a player more familiar with this space, Microsoft, is learning what a hard hill it is to climb when you have allowed your competitors to get way out in front of you and lock people into their app store ecosystems.
- A Facebook phone would have to really wow people with some sort of new technology. Being just another cell phone with another operating system isn't going to cut it. People are vested in the current ecosystems. It will take a truly revolutionary product to pull them off of that....I'm talking foldout bendable screens...something that starts small and gets larger when you fold it out..some sort of truly mind-blowing technology. And I just don't see that coming from Facebook...I really don't.
- Cannibalization. Okay, so you make a Facebook phone. Then what? All those people out there are using other phones currently to log into Facebook. So what happens to your current app? You going to make it so that the only way to get into Facebook is through your own phone? No? Then what's the point. What is the compelling reason to get people to buy your product? Why do they need it over what they already have now?
- Synergy. So, both Android and Apple have moved into the Tablet space to build synergy between their products. So are we going to see a Facebook tablet as well? Again, why? It all comes down to that compelling factor again. If you are going to pull people away from the existing ecosystems, you're going to need a real compelling reason...a new OS won't be enough. Just ask Palm.
Apple created the iPhone for the people, to give us a real smart phone. It was an evolution of the phone.
Facebook is doing it for their own benefit, that is why it does not make any sense so far.
Facebook itself is an interface better than Hi5 or MySpace, but the rest have been advertising and their own business.
That is why a Facebook phone does not make any sense, is not resolving any issue for the people, is not an evolution of the phone, is not giving me anything that I already have. That is why it does not make sense.... so far.
Facebook is doing it for their own benefit, that is why it does not make any sense so far.
Facebook itself is an interface better than Hi5 or MySpace, but the rest have been advertising and their own business.
That is why a Facebook phone does not make any sense, is not resolving any issue for the people, is not an evolution of the phone, is not giving me anything that I already have. That is why it does not make sense.... so far.
Mark Zuckerberg might be socially retarded but he's not a moron. Something tells me that they aren't looking to make a phone but to make their stuff more phone friendly. After all they had no official phone apps for a while and even now the dang app crashes like crazy. Understanding how the phones work, what hardware they have to run on etc, could be to make the apps better. Which would be a very very smart move.
Really?
Unbelievable!
Find one thing to do and do it well. The world will beat a path to your door. Expand beyond your expertise and fall flat on your face.
How does one ever develop expertise in the first place then?
Mark wants it to be more than 'just an app'. He wants it to be a lifestyle.
And that could start by making better apps.
who knows, he might make one and succeed.
I don't think he'd knock the iPhone off its high level no matter how many exApples he hires. But he could manage to grad enough of the 'a dumb phone is enough for me' crowd to make it a worthy experiment
As much as I'd like to believe this will be a total flop, it does scare me a bit as an Apple shareholder. Zuck is smarter than people are giving him credit for here. In my mind, there's a chance that the FB iPhone app was intentionally made to run like garbage.
Then again, we saw how apple did when they dove into social networking, so...
There is no way Facebook would have made a bad app on purpose. That makes no sense whatsoever. They want as many people using their service as often as possible because their users are their content and they're not going to achieve that by making access harder.
This has nothing to do with wanting to lock facebook access to one platform. It's about expanding Facebook as a plaform in its own right via a phone that accesses the Facebook app store exclusively (see the Amazon market). This will help them to counter the difficulties they're having with monetising mobile users.
I'm Facebooked out... I hate the fact I have to have it. And if that's the general feeling with most people (a lot of friends i've talked to feel the same way) Facebook needs to do something to inspire us to really use their service. As of now i post occasional status updates and pictures of big events. Maybe this phone will be it, but I doubt it.
Well, isn't it already just an app on other mobile platforms (and also a website on other OS)?
Find one thing to do and do it well. The world will beat a path to your door. Expand beyond your expertise and fall flat on your face.
So Apple should stop trying to open up new product lines/markets ? Going with this line of thinking, there would never have been an iPhone or iPad or iPods to begin with.
What a shortsighted thing to say.
Nothing like making $19 billion on one's business to provide one with the hubris necessary to think they can avoid putting out a product that becomes just another bug on Apple's windshield, as has happened to so many others (including Microsoft).
This has to be his new trophy wife's idea, as she is probably an Apple junky. I don't see Apple allowing Mark to use iOS for his new FB phone. Therefore I refuse to use anything other than iOS so that means I won't even consider trying a FB phone. I think I would much rather see a company such as Amazon come out with a new phone, even though it would be running Android, it would be more successful than a FB phone IMO.
Facepalm...
I really struggle to see how a Facebook phone would contend in the market.
But Mark, I have a great name for your new device
Buy an established smartphone name from, ohhh.... I don't know, someone like HP. Like Palm.
Get your marketing team to work on a catchy name, incorporating Facebook and Palm.
And here you have it. Your new phone: The FacePalm
I reckon we at Macrumors should henceforth refer to the Facebook phone as the FacePalm
RTP.
I really struggle to see how a Facebook phone would contend in the market.
But Mark, I have a great name for your new device
Buy an established smartphone name from, ohhh.... I don't know, someone like HP. Like Palm.
Get your marketing team to work on a catchy name, incorporating Facebook and Palm.
And here you have it. Your new phone: The FacePalm
I reckon we at Macrumors should henceforth refer to the Facebook phone as the FacePalm
RTP.
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I'm sorry Mark, but thats all Facebook will ever be: an app on other mobile platforms.
I am still puzzled as to why there are 3920390 Facebook apps for iOS, when all they need to do is combine it into one. But sadly, they can't even get the main application functioning properly.
I am still puzzled as to why there are 3920390 Facebook apps for iOS, when all they need to do is combine it into one. But sadly, they can't even get the main application functioning properly.
The big issue?
Yes there is one.
Most smartphones need some kind of corporate/business support to make it. End user home support is not enough. But most businesses think of facebook as something not work related and often ban access to the site on the business intranet. So getting corporate/business to accept and support a phone when they don't even allow the facebook website is tough.
Facebook needs to change it's image from pure fun and social to viable for corporate/business before they can ever hope to have a successful smartphone release.
That's if you believe the rumour.
Yes there is one.
Most smartphones need some kind of corporate/business support to make it. End user home support is not enough. But most businesses think of facebook as something not work related and often ban access to the site on the business intranet. So getting corporate/business to accept and support a phone when they don't even allow the facebook website is tough.
Facebook needs to change it's image from pure fun and social to viable for corporate/business before they can ever hope to have a successful smartphone release.
That's if you believe the rumour.
Big difference between partnering with an established hardware maker and making your own from scratch.
Perhaps they see Facebook as becoming a popular portal onto the internet? Instead of surfing about via Google coming across random sites, they want to structure peoples consumption of the internet almost exclusively through facebook.
Some people just check emails and Facebook and that is their 95% total online time (my wife is one of these people). Occassionally they may window-shop and buy stuff on other websites, but mostly it's just emails and FB. She care's very little about apps or surfing the net.
Therefore, a cheap touchscreen phone, that works only with Facebook (which has got to be at least a year away) could follow some - what I believe will be - radical changes on how commercial information/products are recieved/consumed by (and distributed to) FB users.
Think, retailers, shops and website store fronts integrating with the Facebook site.
Some people just check emails and Facebook and that is their 95% total online time (my wife is one of these people). Occassionally they may window-shop and buy stuff on other websites, but mostly it's just emails and FB. She care's very little about apps or surfing the net.
Therefore, a cheap touchscreen phone, that works only with Facebook (which has got to be at least a year away) could follow some - what I believe will be - radical changes on how commercial information/products are recieved/consumed by (and distributed to) FB users.
Think, retailers, shops and website store fronts integrating with the Facebook site.
My advice for Mark
Hire Jon Rubinstein. He was at NeXT. He was instrumental in creating the original iPod. And he was instrumental in creating the WebOS, which is phenomenal even though it didn't take off. the WebOS still has a loyal following of developers and is now open source. He knows all: hardware, software development, synergy and cloud computing. Short of missing out on some apps, my HP Veer is a great replacement for the iPhone. Another point, facebook already invested in development for the WebOS for both the HP smartphones and the ill-fated touchpad.
Hire Jon Rubinstein. He was at NeXT. He was instrumental in creating the original iPod. And he was instrumental in creating the WebOS, which is phenomenal even though it didn't take off. the WebOS still has a loyal following of developers and is now open source. He knows all: hardware, software development, synergy and cloud computing. Short of missing out on some apps, my HP Veer is a great replacement for the iPhone. Another point, facebook already invested in development for the WebOS for both the HP smartphones and the ill-fated touchpad.
