They could try to revive webOS - certainly a lot of work already gone in to that.
FacePalm?
Facebook Tries Again on a Smartphone
11–20 of 41 posts
Re: Facebook Tries Again on a Smartphone
#12If Facebook buys RIM, we're screwed.
Re: Facebook Tries Again on a Smartphone
#13I was surprised to read that Facebook has its own operating system. Does anybody know anything about this? Count me in as someone who would never use a Facebook phone. Might as well use a CIA phone. I'm all for watching the competition though.
I doubt they will roll an entire mobile operating system in the time frame mentioned. A kindle-esque customized Android phone seems more likely.
Re: Facebook Tries Again on a Smartphone
#14I know a fair number of people who bought smartphones for the specific purpose of using facebook on the move. Even for those who didn't it's often a big use case.
I wonder if facebook could release it's own phone (linked to a FB account) and then restrict access of other smartphones to it's platforms and APIs (so that they become a crippled shell) while adding features that were exclusive to the FB phone.
Could dominate the entire smartphone game in one move.
Re: Facebook Tries Again on a Smartphone
#15I know a fair number of people who bought smartphones for the specific purpose of using facebook on the move. Even for those who didn't it's often a big use case. I wonder if facebook could release it's own phone (linked to a FB account) and then restrict access of other smartphones to it's platforms and APIs (so that they become a crippled shell) while adding features that were exclusive to the FB phone. Could domin…
On the other hand, I think it would be suicidal. While I agree that the phones of some (may be many) might be utilized solely for the purpose of checking Facebook regularly and on the move; there are still other reasons why people prefer one phone over other.
They have already opened up enough APIs to allow for decent third party clients - if they make a policy to withdraw it, developers and users who have already bought a smartphone will not only panic but probably revolt as well.
Alienating existing userbase, when alternative platforms like Quora are just starting to get very popular would be suicidal. In fact my university is already seeing a mass migration from Facebook to Quora and reddit (and HN).
Re: Facebook Tries Again on a Smartphone
#16If Facebook buys RIM, we're screwed.
I think more aptly, if Facebook buys RIM they're screwed.
It's just crazy talk. Facebook has a headcount of 3,500, and people seriously think they can feasible buy out RIM, with 17,500 people, and then just magically integrate them and poof produce a great phone? It's madness.
If you take the article at face value, Facebook have already tried developing their own hardware and had it implode due to a lack of experience. So for the author to seriously suggest the solution should be to acquire HTC or RIM when Facebook have equally little experience doing large mergers and acquisitions makes no sense to me.
Re: Facebook Tries Again on a Smartphone
#17Soon Facebook will acquire enough mass to cross Chandrasekhar limit and collapse into a black hole of the internet. No information will ever leave the system, its existence will be observed only by interaction with advertisement radiation in the internet. People will claim that they left FB space but that is physically impossible.
Over time interstellar drift may cause FB blackhole to collide with Google or Apple galaxy. And then whole internet cluster will collapse.
Re: Facebook Tries Again on a Smartphone
#18I know a fair number of people who bought smartphones for the specific purpose of using facebook on the move. Even for those who didn't it's often a big use case. I wonder if facebook could release it's own phone (linked to a FB account) and then restrict access of other smartphones to it's platforms and APIs (so that they become a crippled shell) while adding features that were exclusive to the FB phone. Could domin…
On the other hand, I think it would be suicidal. While I agree that the phones of some (may be many) might be utilized solely for the purpose of checking Facebook regularly and on the move; there are still other reasons why people prefer one phone over other. They have already opened up enough APIs to allow for decent third party clients - if they make a policy to withdraw it, developers and users who have already bo…
Things like Quora and reddit aren't really FB substitutes (at least for most people) although I suppose they could be at risk from Google+.
They would have to stop this from becoming just another "me too" phone , the only way I can think of doing that would be to somehow leverage their existing userbase and make sure that using FB from their phone is a much better experience. The only way I can think of them doing that is by restricted what other phones can actually do.
Re: Facebook Tries Again on a Smartphone
#19Re: Facebook Tries Again on a Smartphone
#20" It could easily scoop up an infirm company like Research in Motion, which is valued at less than $6 billion, and drop a beautifully designed Facebook operating system on top of RIM’s phones. " I find this to be an affront to engineers and designers. It trivializes the amount of time and effort it takes to make a well engineered product. Can someone elucidate why it might be important for Facebook to have it's own h…
Their current mobile offer is... underwhelming. This is mostly due to them not being able to integrate deeply with any platform, because they don't control anything else in the stack (browser -> OS -> hardware). They seem to be looking for ways to fix this by acquiring other layers, starting from the browser -- they're in talks with Opera. This rumour about them building hardware goes in the same direction.
The real key, however, is the OS layer; they cannot really use Android, for obvious reasons, but I can't see any other mobile OS lying around, after the Great Purge of 2011 that killed Maemo/Meego, WebOS and pretty much everything else except iOS and Android. Betting on Windows Phone is extremely risky at the moment, and anyway Ballmer has his own priorities which may or may not align with Zuckerberg's.