Now you can let Facebook take over your phone. This afternoon, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg officially unveiled what many have been speculating about for weeks. Not a Facebook phone, but close enough to one. The social networking site announced their new Facebook Home app for Android smartphones. Android users are already familiar with the concept of swapping their phone's native home launcher with another such as Go Launcher Ex or ADW Launcher. Well, Facebook Home is essentially just that. It replaces the look, feel, and functionality of your phone's home screen and centers everything around (you guessed it) Facebook.
“Today our phones are designed around apps, not people. We want to flip that around,” says Zuckerberg.
Most analysts, like Jan Dawson of Ovum, are calling the service a "gimmick" which is unlikely to get promoted by carriers and translate into any real profitability (similar to the ChaCha, a HTC phone with a dedicated Facebook built into its front). When you turn on your phone with Facebook Home, you will see the Facebook News Feed (renamed the Cover Feed) as it updates with friends' statuses and photos in real time. It is even possible to scroll through the Cover Feed and "Liking" something is as easy as double tapping it in the feed. Zuckerberg has made it clear that the company plans on rolling out front-facing ads with Home, but there will not be any when it launches later this month.
Facebook says that they have been working with a number of mobile phone manufacturers, but the first to launch with Home built in will be another HTC device called "First," available through AT&T for only $100. It will be available as early as April 12 in the United States and for download on some other HTC and Samsung phones. None of those which will come packaged with the service are likely to be high end phones, but rather phones targeted to consumers who have not yet gotten on the smartphone bandwagon. With this kind of service, however, one could expect to consume a substantial amount of data which could get pricey with today's "per GB" plans being offered by carriers.
--
Shaun Beacham is musician having graduated from Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA and a multidimensional journalist exclusively for Examiner. Subscribe to all of his channels and be sure to follow him on Twitter, Google+, and other social media outlets.
Comments