Since Google pays News Corp millions of dollars to be its friend, it is no surprise that MySpace, the elder social networking service, would be one of the first companies to release an Android-version of MySpace Mobile just ahead of the commercial release of the Google Phone tomorrow. It looks remarkably like the iPhone version on Facebook. (Check out my review in case you are interested in buying the phone.)
MySpace Mobile for Android will join its Sidekick and iPhone brethren and a BlackBerry version is in the works. MySpace has made music a central feature of this application and has also integrated with Shazam, a London-based music discovery startup that I wrote about earlier this week. Facebook, however, has no plans to release its app for the Android platform. At least for now. No surprise: There is no love lost between Facebook and Google. In response to my query about their Android plans, a Facebook spokesperson send back this reply:
We don’t have anything to share about future products at this time, but as you know we have always been focused on making Facebook accessible on any mobile device in countries around the world. m.facebook.com enables people to use Facebook on any mobile phones with mobile Internet access and we work with more than 100 operators to deploy it. And of course, there are the applications for the iPhone, BlackBerry and Palm devices. We’ll keep you posted if there are any updates.
Even in mobile there are many points of conflict between Google and Facebook. Facebook is developing Facebook Connect for Mobiles. Facebook Connect competes with Google-sponsored OpenSocial. At our Mobilize conference, Facebook’s Chamath Palihapitiya hinted that the company may merge the phone’s address book with owner’s social network. A Facebook phone? Who knows? People like INQ think Facebook can help them sell a lot of phones.
I have Facebook on my iPhone and the application is an absolutely delightful and the fastest way to use the social network — so much so I have pretty much stopped using the web version of the application. Interestingly, if they had an Android version for G-1, it could become even more useful because of the Qwerty keyboard that would allow me to message more often.
PS: In San Francisco, T-Mobile has planned a big launch event at their flagship store on the corner of 3rd and Market Street.
“Facebook, however, has no plans to release its app for the Android platform.”
I thought they did, you know, when they posted it as a conforming HTML document at all.
I don’t understand how device manufacturers can say in one breath, “It has a modern web browser. That means you can go to any site, not just those crappy mobile sites!” and in the next, “Hey, look at this cool mobile site we added!”
There is a big difference between Facebook saying they don’t have anything to share at this time and Facebook saying they’re not going to do a version of their site for Android.
http://iphone.facebook.com from what I here is working fine for all those who have an Android phone already. As Mr. Flaschen states above, it will work in your html browser on your desktop as well and is a nice alternative to the regular facebook site. I am sure other sites formatted this way will work too…
I’m an Android fanboy, but truth be told: It’s Google’s loss.
If Google is dumb enough to think it could write something that replaces Facebook, then they do not deserve my fanboism.
The worst thing about the Androi Dev Challenge was that most winner were replica location-based Social apps. No thanks. Facebook is way more than enough for me.
Om, have a look at PortableContacts and the OpenID+XRDS+OAuth+PortableContacts bindings discussed at the OpenID UI summit this week. The Open Stack approach to this problem space keeps bearing fruit.