Facebook and mobile phones

Will Home work?

Apr 4th 2013, 23:24 by M.G | SAN FRANCISCO

    A DAY after the mobile phone celebrated its 40th birthday, Facebook has produced something that it hopes will make certain of the devices even more useful. On April 4th the giant social network unveiled Home, new software that is designed to give it more prominence on mobile phones powered by Android, an operating system developed by Google.
    This matters because more and more folk are now accessing social networks from mobile devices rather than from desktop computers and because mobile advertising revenues are growing fast, albeit from a low base. Without a robust mobile presence, Facebook could see some of its users siphoned off by rivals born in the mobile era. And it could miss out on a potentially massive source of new revenue.
    There had been speculation that Facebook was working on a phone of its own, or at least on a mobile operating system to rival Android or Apple’s iOS. But dabbling in hardware at this stage of its development would be a huge risk for Facebook and developing a rival operating system would risk alienating Apple and Google, whose mobile platforms have helped power its advertising growth. EMarketer, a research firm, reckons Facebook is on track to win 11% of the $13.6 billion likely to be spent around the world on mobile ads this year.

(Adaptado de http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2013/04/facebook-and-mobile-phones; Acessado em 08/04/2013)