So, the usual rumours about Facebook making its own (smart)phone turn out to be somewhat premature…

http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2013/04/05/facebook-home-apple-google/

After all, why go to all the trouble of making your own phone, when you can just ‘hijack’ an existing one?

This reminds me of the interminable attempts by various online organisations to ‘take over’ your browser, by tempting you with dashboards and self-installing home pages..

The big question is – who is this aimed at?       Are there really that many people who use their phone primarily for Facebook?     There is a real danger that Zuckerberg is believing all the hype about ‘everything going mobile’, when in fact the tiny screen on you phone is actually pretty bad for a lot of this stuff..     It might have made more sense to aim for tablets…

I think this is a sign that Facebook is running out of steam, and there seems little real ‘innovation’ here….    In fact, this whole exercise might end up being more annoying than liberating, for many potential ‘customers’…      Don’t forget – for Facebook, the ‘Customer’ is not you, the user…   You are simply the sometimes-unwitting provider of valuable (personal) data, which can then be repackaged and sold on, at a profit..

Apple might not be too worried by all this.   After all, they already ‘own’ their user base..    Google might be more concerned, at a potential loss of the Android / Google Play control point that they have carefully nurtured..

© Robert Gadsdon..   April 6, 2013.