Facebook please do not create a phone. Create great apps/mobile ads

By Ouriel | Published: May 28, 2012

Facebook is rumored to create a mobile phone. It just does not make sense that such a media company would invest so much time, and resources in building hardware or even in licensing existing hardware to build a phone.

Facebook has a 2 critical problems to solve on mobile. 2 only: app performance, app monetization. The first one being massive.

Facebook already has the critical mobile reach. This is already the most downloaded free iPhone app ever. But clearly not the most appreciated. They have massive reach of DAU/MAU (daily recurring users for simple humans)

Right now Facebook problem on mobile by far is the performance of its mobile app. It is one of the worst mobile app ever created by a great company: it is slow. insanely slow. The reason? it is not native. Not really. It is a web version of the site, wrapped in a native shell. The results is a slow poor experience. Read more about why here

Facebook app

Facebook has to fix that asap. Rebuild everything from scratched. And not just another photo app. Facebook, please build a great native app for iOS. Learn from Twitter in that respect. HTML5 is not there yet and will not be there for the years to come. Actually Facebook just proved they can make a great native app

Facebook, Just fix this (this may be why they hire so many new mobile engineers)

The second problem Facebook has on mobile is monetization: Facebook has not (yet) monetized mobile. But has the potential to do it. Look at how mobile app networks are monetizing. Do not use stupid, ineffective banner ads. Invent a format that captures user attention. Create a context that will make users want to click on ads. Facebook clear has the ability to leverage its audience to generate app downloads and more conversion related actions.

Facebook 17

But users won’t click on any type of ads if the app sucks.

Facebook does not need a phone to make a better app. They don’t need to own an OS or license an OS to do that.

Facebook please do not make a phone. Make a great app.

Bonus: Actually if you want to see the Facebook phone before anyone, click here

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  • http://www.iphoneil.net/?author=2583 Ronen Mendezitsky

    I don’t think Facebook are going for a phone, I think they’re going for a browser. The iOS browsers are very limited since Apple made sure that only Safari will be the default one, which makes sending links to another browser a problem, however, an interesting thought occurred to me after reading this blog post: http://bit.ly/KK3kIh. It explains how the Keychain on iOS works and also why the Facebook Camera app knew our name before connecting through their new Camera app to Facebook.

    Both Facebook and Google have been rumored in relation to browsers. Google with its Chrome that is supposedly coming out very soon on iOS and Facebook with rumors about it buying Opera.

    Facebook can gain a lot from creating its own browser as many people already use the Facebook app and links are usually sent outside the app and into Safari, but if the Facebook Camera app can transfer us to the Facebook app, why not to a browser as well? I am not sure about the specific, but if what I’m thinking is on the right direction, it means that browsers from these BIG companies (Google/Facebook) can gain from people using their other apps even if Apple keeps Safari as a default browser client.

    Maybe i’m reaching, but a big mobile browser war is surely something I want to see. and hopefully, not a FB-Mobile

    • http://ouriel.typepad.com OurielOhayon

      Yep Ronen, i think i noticed that screen even before MG (read my techcrunch comment). Facebook is by default a browser since you are pointed to web pages. it is just a bad browser for now (slow, not loading enough pages,…)…but becoming a browser does not mean becoming a phone

  • http://gpstrackerreview.tripod.com/ Jasper G.

    Now there are rumors that Facebook is considering buying mobile browser
    Opera, a move that would strengthen Facebook’s platform status without
    requiring an immediate move into the actual device business.