Facebook unveiled a brand new application for Android-driven smartphones and tablets Thursday, a move that comes as a fast-growing number of its 1.06 billion users access the social networking website on their mobile devices.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg took the stage a little after one p.m. ET in Menlo Park, Calif., to unveil what the corporate is asking Facebook Home.
It's primarily an all-inclusive app for any mechanical man device. Facebook Home becomes the home screen for the phone, a filter through that all different devices and applications will be used.
Zuckerberg began the presentation by noting that currently, smartphone users pay 20 per cent of the time they're exploitation their devices on Facebook. and also the company wants to extend that by transforming itself into a central hub through that all different applications will be used.
"We’re not building a phone," Zuckerberg aforementioned. "We’re not building an software package. however we have a tendency to are building something that’s a whole heap deeper than an app."
Among the options are something the corporate is asking "chatheads" that boil down to having a user's facebook profile image return up whenever a user's contact interacts with them, without the smartphone user ever having to leave no matter they were doing in the 1st place.
Later in the presentation, Facebook announced that Taiwanese phone maker HTC will build a Facebook-branded phone, referred to as 1st, which is able to be available to U.S. consumer starting april twelfth and can associate with all the latest Facebook-related apps and also the Home technology pre-installed. that is the news that folks were expecting, however as it seems, the computer code being employed on a lot of mechanical man devices was the larger news of the day.
Others, together with HTC's One X and One X and and Samsung's Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note two will follow. and also the forthcoming HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S IV will be able to run Home.
The move is aimed at helping Facebook create gains in the mobile space. although it is the most well liked social network on the planet, with more than a billion users, Facebook may be a laggard in the mobile space as it struggles to get advertising revenue from the growing base of users who press on Facebook through their phones.
Last year, the {corporate} began showing ads to its mobile audience by splicing corporate sponsorships and content into users' news feeds, that conjointly includes updates from friends and makes they follow. Among the challenges Facebook faces now's showing people mobile ads without annoying or alienating them.
Ads will eventually be incorporated into Home, however not at first.
Gartner analyst Brian Blau says he's affected with Facebook's commitment to update Home once a month with further options. He says Home "could be a game changer if you are a heavy Facebook user."
The mobile advertisement market is growing quickly. that's thanks in massive half to Facebook and Twitter, that conjointly entered the space in 2012. analysis firm eMarketer expects U.S. mobile ad disbursement to grow 77 per cent this year to $7.29 billion, from $4.11 billion last year.
"What Facebook wants is to place itself at the front of the mechanical man user experience for as several Facebook users as doable and create Facebook a lot of elemental to their customers' experience," aforementioned Forrester analyst Charles Golvin.
EMarketer aforementioned wednesday that it expects Facebook inc. to reap $965 million in U.S. mobile ad revenue in 2013. that's about two.5 times the $391 million in 2012, the primary year that Facebook started showing mobile ads.
Clark Fredricksen, vp at eMarketer, aforementioned it's "tough to speculate" what proportion effect Thursday's announcement would wear ad revenue.
At an equivalent time, he says "there are some clear reasons why a deeper integration with mobile operative systems and handsets be for Facebook. At the tip of the day, the a lot of deeply Facebook can engage consumers, no matter what device or software package or telephone set," the higher.
Facebook's rival, Google Inc., makes the mechanical man computer code that Facebook would operate underneath. Google makes the computer code available on an open-source basis, that means others together with rivals are unengaged to adapt it to their wants. Amazon.com does just that in modifying mechanical man to run its Kindle pill computers.
Facebook isn't any. two behind Google inc. when it involves mobile advertisements, and it's not expected to surpass the online search leader any time soon. Google dominates the mobile search market with ninety three per cent of U.S. mobile search advertising bucks, according to eMarketer. on-line music service pandora inc. is in third place when it involves mobile ad bucks, followed by Twitter.
With files from The Associated Press
Post A Comment: