back to article Zuckerberg's HTML5 Trojan horse play

Apple has become the world's most valuable company by filling us with childish wonder at (and ravenous lust to buy) its Jesus phone, but Facebook seems sure to surpass Apple's $350bn-plus market cap by providing the social fabric for all internet traffic. But first the social giant needs to figure out mobile. And fast. It's …

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  1. Gil Grissum
    Thumb Down

    I don't think so

    I have no interest in Facebook Apps, mobile or otherwise. I don't play any Facebook games and don't use any Facebook apps. In fact, since the last user interface update, I use Facebook less than ever. The only reason I even go to it is to check in on a hand full of friends I have there. I don't care to know or be updated on the details of everyone's personal life, what games their playing, or much more than just a status update. And I definitely will not be participating in spreading any Facebook apps or doing anything that keeps anyone tied into Facebook.

    I use Twitter and Google + much more than Facebook and unless Zuckerberg actually listens to the complaints and stops with the personal data munching tactics, I will use his social network less and less.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      something tells me

      you are not who he is trying to reach

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Jumping Jesus on a Po-Go Stick

    "Facebook seems sure to surpass Apple's $350bn-plus market cap"

    <sarcasm>

    That's what, a P/E ratio of ∞?

    </sarcasm>

    Actually, 82 vs. a market average of ~14

    : /

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Everybody knows...

      ... that a P/E ratio lives in a hole in the ground. Why the hell do you think they call them P/E ratios, anyway?

  3. nyelvmark
    Trollface

    Just wait...

    ...for the Facebook OS (based on PalmOS and codenamed FacePalm) to be launched next year, followed by the dedicated Facebook computer codenamed "The Face Base" which is predicted to be the "must have" product for 2014.

    After all, once you have Facebook, what else do you need?*

    *I assert copyright on the above slogan.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      surely

      a facebook computer is a Facebook? This use of the same name will be doubly useful because it will lead the legions of FB users to think of their entire online experience as being "facebook" and the rest of the internet (over and above the data pipes) will cease to exist.

  4. dave 93
    Thumb Down

    I'm not convinced...

    ...that a web app running in a browser app, on a mobile OS (app) is going to offer the low latency performance users prefer - particularly for games. How do they work offline?

    If you want social network fabric, think how many internet users use Google search every day.

    When they start making you log in to use Google, it could be a game changer - if it's all about ads.

  5. Stuart Elliott

    400 million daily active users?

    How many out of them only use Farcebook for Zynga games ?

    All Facebook need to do to get them on mobile FB is convince Zynga to drop Flash games in favour of something Apple likes. :)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "All Facebook need to do to get them on mobile FB is convince Zynga to drop Flash games in favour of something Apple likes. :)"

      What Apple would like, is for Zynga to release games directly into the App Store.

  6. Jeff 11
    Meh

    'Genius' is a dangerously optimistic term for this, given the chicken and egg situation that Facebook has to overcome here: currently very few people use Facebook on mobile, so FB app developers don't have a compelling reason for rebuilding their apps for mobile devices at the moment.

    The other hurdle is the major timewaster FB apps - well, 'games' - are Flash monstrosities that can't necessarily (or, perhaps, even feasibly) be replicated in their native entirety with HTML and JS, and that may preclude using them on Apple kit.

    I reckon FB would be better off rebuilding their crap mobile apps instead of trying so hard to become a mobile platform; perhaps the reason why so few people use it is because the experience of using FB's base features on a mobile device is rather poor.

  7. DF118

    If Facebook stopped introducing shitty features and ironed out the myriad bugs in their current mobile apps, then they would be a bit further down the road to "figuring out mobile" and getting a stable, non pissed-off, mobile user base. Just a thought.

  8. g e
    FAIL

    Facebook. Mobile. SHIT NO

    I killed Farcebook running on my HTC Desire and reverted al its updates and wiped its data and cache. Why?

    Because every time I use it the serially untrustworthy social network causes the GPS icon to come up on my phone.

    Thank you for showing me Android. Fuck you, Facebook for doing it without asking me first, every single time.

    1. Silverburn
      Devil

      T&C's

      I suspect they did ask you, and you agreed to it when you clicked 'agree' in the T&C's...

      But who can blame you. Most T&C's are the work of Satan; unduly painful, and you sign your soul away....

  9. teknopaul

    fix that app

    official arsebook app is the only app I have that crashes. they should fix that for a start. the app does not show addresses for biznizes, I use the no images old html site for fb mobile since it is the onlything that works . big zero to fb mobile. probably a good thing, if they had an app that worked it would probably scrape so much you have to turn it off.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Conflict of interests?

    Isn't the writer here pushing his actual company "Strobe, a startup that offers an *open source framework for building mobile apps*"?

    I'd prefer an unbiased point of view.

    1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      It does indeed read a bit like that, doesn't it.

      I can't really say much about Facebook as I've never used it but it did strike me recently that most of my contacts on Google+ are a marketer's wet dream. Will be interesting to see how Google makes that kind of information available to advertisers and what they propose to subject us to to make it pay. I suspect that if they get it right the advertising stream currently flowing into Facebook may dry up quickly. Network effects aside it's not all about the numbers - you need customers with sufficient disposable income - surely that was the lesson of the dot.com bubble?

      Amazon looks like it is going to have a head start milking the sheeple in its walled garden. As with Apple who cares about the technology once they have the source of instant gratification in their hand.

  11. davenewman

    Facebook Android apps want the world

    Including the right to spend my money on sending SMS text messages, in a recent update.

    So I removed all updates to the Facebook app., and would delete it completely if I could.

  12. metaspective
    Headmaster

    "Machiavelli would be proud"

    It's a common misconception that Machiavelli somehow encouraged conspiratorial or unethical practices.

    What next, that silly old King Canute who thought he could command the waves?

  13. P. Lee

    but is the mobile traffic profitable?

    My guess would be that there's a lot of gmail access and a lot of ad-free search on mobile devices.

    Apart from brand building, that's probably not profitable in itself.

    Hint: mobile screens are too small for ads in web pages.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    you'd think so but

    "This is bad news, as mobile users are reportedly more engaged than web users, take more notice of ads"

    according to the guru anyway. Does seem hard to believe though - would have thought bandwidth and screen size would both be disincentives to watch adverts...

  15. OffBeatMammal

    bloated

    sadly FB is becoming more bloated and desperate to keep users sucked in (so they can mine information and sell it to advertisers)

    given how crowded and painful the web experience has become I'm not holding up much hope for a good mobile experience - just look at the unholy mess that is the Android app these days (and try explaining to me why it needs a seperate Messaging app)

    the biggest problem I had with MySpace was the user experience was like being poked in the eye with a fork and FB managed for a long time to avoid that but that simplicity is fading... unless they can focus as much effort on good interfaces as they do on clever features they're going to alienate their user base who will jump to the next shiny thing as soon as their friends do (I use twitter and G+ more now because FB is becoming annoying)

  16. Jonjonz
    FAIL

    Farcebook - dont use it, never will

    Farcebook, Foolsbook, whatever, don't use it, never will. The bubble is very close to popping.

    Narcissist-book is more like it.

    This article says absolutely nothing, repeatedly. Waste of space.

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