http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/will-...osoft-and-facebook-help-save-blackberry/48149
Because of his high-energy antics, Ballmer can be tough act to follow, but after him RIM brought out Facebooks vice president of global marketing solutions Carolyn Everson and she surprisingly wowed the crowd with some great anecdotes about Facebook, a visionary message about where Facebook is heading, and a vote of confidence in BlackBerry as one of its key mobile partners.
Everson, who left a top sales job at Microsoft to come to Facebook, explained how Facebook puts Social by Design stickers on everything at Facebook, including desks, walls, and laptops in order to remind all of the employees to put users and social features at the forefront of their work at all times. She told a story of how this philosophy bore fruit when two interns decided that Facebook needed its own photo-sharing element and built the feature in 24 hours. It didnt have hardly any features but it allowed users to tag their friends in the photos. It took off like wildfire and eventually made Facebook the No. 1 photo-sharing site on the planet.
Everson explains Facebooks principles of social design. Photo credit: Jason Hiner
According to Everson, another motto of Facebook is that This journey is 1% finished, which speaks to the fact that Facebook sees the social networking revolution as still in its earliest infancy, with a ton of exciting innovation to come.
Everson stressed that mobile is the next great frontier, and that it will overtake PCs in the next two years as the most important computing platform. I cant overestimate the importance of mobile, she said.
Nevertheless, Facebook hasnt done much to enhance its mobile experience. The Facebook app for the PlayBook is Facebooks first tablet app. Everson told the audience that it was a three-way collaboration between Facebook, RIM, and Adobe (the app was built using AIR).
Were extremely bullish about our partnership with BlackBerry, she said. But, she also added that Facebook is moving to a consistency across our platforms and [is] a big supporter of HTML5. In other words, dont expect tablet exclusivity on BlackBerry for long, and Facebook would ultimately prefer to build Web apps rather than a specific app for each platform.
While signing up these three partners is an important move that shows RIM is courting big developers and cutting the right deals, theres a lot more work that needs to be done for both smartphones and tablets. For the PlayBook, the one partner that RIM needs to double-down on immediately is Amazon. The PlayBook desperately needs a Kindle app, and an Amazon CloudPlayer app would be a big bonus as well.
Because of his high-energy antics, Ballmer can be tough act to follow, but after him RIM brought out Facebooks vice president of global marketing solutions Carolyn Everson and she surprisingly wowed the crowd with some great anecdotes about Facebook, a visionary message about where Facebook is heading, and a vote of confidence in BlackBerry as one of its key mobile partners.
Everson, who left a top sales job at Microsoft to come to Facebook, explained how Facebook puts Social by Design stickers on everything at Facebook, including desks, walls, and laptops in order to remind all of the employees to put users and social features at the forefront of their work at all times. She told a story of how this philosophy bore fruit when two interns decided that Facebook needed its own photo-sharing element and built the feature in 24 hours. It didnt have hardly any features but it allowed users to tag their friends in the photos. It took off like wildfire and eventually made Facebook the No. 1 photo-sharing site on the planet.
Everson explains Facebooks principles of social design. Photo credit: Jason Hiner
According to Everson, another motto of Facebook is that This journey is 1% finished, which speaks to the fact that Facebook sees the social networking revolution as still in its earliest infancy, with a ton of exciting innovation to come.
Everson stressed that mobile is the next great frontier, and that it will overtake PCs in the next two years as the most important computing platform. I cant overestimate the importance of mobile, she said.
Nevertheless, Facebook hasnt done much to enhance its mobile experience. The Facebook app for the PlayBook is Facebooks first tablet app. Everson told the audience that it was a three-way collaboration between Facebook, RIM, and Adobe (the app was built using AIR).
Were extremely bullish about our partnership with BlackBerry, she said. But, she also added that Facebook is moving to a consistency across our platforms and [is] a big supporter of HTML5. In other words, dont expect tablet exclusivity on BlackBerry for long, and Facebook would ultimately prefer to build Web apps rather than a specific app for each platform.
While signing up these three partners is an important move that shows RIM is courting big developers and cutting the right deals, theres a lot more work that needs to be done for both smartphones and tablets. For the PlayBook, the one partner that RIM needs to double-down on immediately is Amazon. The PlayBook desperately needs a Kindle app, and an Amazon CloudPlayer app would be a big bonus as well.
