{"id":652011,"date":"2013-04-04T14:03:45","date_gmt":"2013-04-04T18:03:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mobilemoo.com\/?p=28729"},"modified":"2013-04-04T14:03:45","modified_gmt":"2013-04-04T18:03:45","slug":"facebook-has-strong-mobile-usage-but-is-it-primary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/652011","title":{"rendered":"Facebook Has Strong Mobile Usage, but Is It Primary?"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

Today we heard the long-anticipated announcement of a Facebook phone. It’s not actually a phone, though. Instead it is a custom home screen for Android. Again, the beauty of Android’s open architecture is on display here. Companies of any stripe can, if they are so inclined, create a custom Android skin that changes the way the operating system functions in certain ways. That’s exactly what we saw from Facebook today.<\/p>\n

Despite the anticipation of the announcement and some generally positive remarks from the live bloggers, one important question remains. Yes, people use Facebook on their mobile phone<\/a>, which is a positive for the social network. But just because people use Facebook on their phones does not mean they want Facebook integrating with every facet of their smartphone experience. <\/p>\n

In his opening pitch, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said, “Our phones are designed around apps and not people. So we want to flip that around.” While the idea of a phone designed around people sounds like a noble cause, it is not what Facebook is aiming for here. They want a phone built around Facebook, plain and simple. You can quite easily build your phone around people, especially your Android phone with its robust and customizable contacts list. Facebook would rather you view people through them.<\/p>\n

\"FacebookHome\"<\/p>\n

One neat feature of the app is called Chat Heads, which allows you to message someone when you’re viewing them. “In today’s app centric world, messaging is treated just like another app,” said Zuckerberg. This is true, with even SMS acting as another app. Yet other companies that have tried to create custom skins have fallen short. Just look at HTC. We haven’t yet seen their revamped Sense UI, but the initial screenshots make it look horrible. There’s something to be said for a custom navigation experience, but no company has nailed it yet. It appears doubtful that Facebook will be the first.<\/p>\n

Speaking of HTC, they’ll be the first company to produce a phone with Facebook Home. That phone, the HTC First, will launch later this month — probably around the same time as the HTC One. Despite the One’s probable superiority, it is almost a given that the First will sell better, given the power of Facebook’s brand. But that doesn’t guarantee consumers will like it once they have it. <\/p>\n

As is pretty clear, I have no interest in this phone whatsoever. Consider the number of people my age (~30) who got in on the ground floor of Facebook and now only retain accounts because of others, I’m not sure that Facebook has the bright future that many in the social media industry believe. Facebook does love to tout its mobile engagement, and Facebook Home will absolutely test those claims. I don’t expect them to be particularly positive, though.<\/p>\n

One interesting note is that Microsoft could be the big loser here. As Search Engine Land’s Danny Sullivan notes<\/a>, Bing is Facebook’s desktop search provider. Yet Facebook Home is built on Android, a Google property. Zuckerberg said that you can “use whatever you want” for search, but Sullivan believes that Google will provide the default search function. That hurts Microsoft in the growing mobile search wars. <\/p>\n

You can read more about Facebook Home at Facebook’s newsroom<\/a>. Again, the Chat Heads feature actually looks cool. It’s a little disruptive, but that’s fine for messaging. The problem, at least for me, is turning my mobile experience into a Facebook-driven experience. Does anyone really want that? <\/p>\n

For posterity’s sake, USA Today<\/a> was my go-to live blog. <\/p>\n

The post Facebook Has Strong Mobile Usage, but Is It Primary?<\/a> appeared first on MobileMoo<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today we heard the long-anticipated announcement of a Facebook phone. It’s not actually a phone, though. Instead it is a custom home screen for Android. Again, the beauty of Android’s open architecture is on display here. Companies of any stripe can, if they are so inclined, create a custom Android skin that changes the way […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7435,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-652011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7435"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=652011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652011\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}