Facebook Announces App Center 81
An anonymous reader writes "Facebook today announced the App Center. Whether you're a Facebook user or a third-party developer, think of it like the Apple App Store or the Google Play store, but for Facebook. That's right: while in-app purchases have existed for a while, Facebook will now give developers the option to offer paid apps (users will pay a flat fee to use an app on facebook.com)."
This is brilliant! (Score:5, Insightful)
It'll just be like running apps on your very own computer, except these will be slower, and only usable at the whim of a third party, and will send every action you take to marketers and data-miners, and won't offer as much functionality.
Brilliant!
This can only end in tears (Score:4, Insightful)
I wonder if they will work on your mobile devices.
They'll be all like, "Yo Dawg, I put an app in your app so you can facebook while you facebook."
Dead horse, stick, go.
Re:They announce this now? (Score:5, Insightful)
Seems odd but im guessing they had a reason for it.
apps (and app stores) are all the rage now... This is to lure unsuspecting investors who don't know this is a gimmick.
Is there an app for blocking app requests? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:They announce this now? (Score:4, Insightful)
There isnt going to be a shortage of investors.
Despite a lot of the rhetoric/slashdot hate, facebook is a successful company that makes money in a now proven way of internet advertising.
There may be a dotcom bubble brewing with a lot of companies that will implode, facebook isnt one of them.
The main reason for the IPO is to reward the people that own the company now and comply with laws, it isnt for the cash that will be raised.
One app to rule them all (Score:4, Insightful)
And in the Facebook, block them
I can only hope ... rather than having to block every request for space chicken or karma wars or castle food growers or whatnot
Native apps are walled gardens. (Score:5, Insightful)
It blows my mind to think just how much wasteful effort has gone into making the same applications work on the iPhone, iPad, Android phones, Android tablets, and also for Chrome apps, regular webapps, now Facebook Apps, and next time it would be WinPhone apps.
Another freaking walled garden. Now we will have 3 major walled gardens (Apple's, Google's, and Facebook's) and soon Microsoft will join in as well. Is that what passes as "innovative" nowadays?
Apps are not the future. They are the past.
Webapps or just web pages, as we used to call them, are the future of software. You just enter an address or click a link and you get to the most up to date "app". No installation, no updates, no permissions, no specific OS or hardware or platform necessary. It works everywhere by everyone and all the time with no hassles.
The reason apps made a comeback is because you can charge for apps. An app is a defined thing and an installation is a chargeable privilege. So thank Apple and all the me-too followers for burdening us with software deployment and management just as we were about to escape those unnecessary activities.
Apps as platform is not driven by mobile OSes, browsers, social networking sites, or other modern technology. It is driven by capitalism.
So don't get sucked into yet another walled garden.
Apps are not the future. They are the past.
Re:They announce this now? (Score:5, Insightful)
There may be a dotcom bubble brewing with a lot of companies that will implode, facebook isnt one of them.
I wouldn't be so sure. Social networking is based almost entirely on Metcalf's law. The reason Facebook has value is that people use Facebook. But social networks are trend-based. And people hate Facebook. They only use it because their friends use it and vice versa; again, Metcalf's law. All it takes for Facebook to dry up and blow away is for something that doesn't initially look like a social network, which Facebook can't quickly replicate, to garner a critical mass of users and then let people realize that the thing they and their friends now all have can also be used as a Facebook replacement, and suddenly Facebook is Myspace.
The main reason for the IPO is to reward the people that own the company now and comply with laws, it isnt for the cash that will be raised.
Which is a huge red flag. If a company is issuing stock, not because it actually needs more investors or capital, but instead to create a bigger market for the existing owners to sell their shares and cash out, that is telling you something about the faith of the existing owners in the future value of the company.
Really the problem is this: We are very close to, if not already past, Peak Facebook. Pretty much everyone who wants to be on Facebook already is, so where is the opportunity for growth?
That's why it isn't a normal IPO. The company isn't taking investment capital in order to grow the company; the company is already big. You would be investing in AT&T, not Google-in-2004. Except that you aren't investing in AT&T, because AT&T has tangible physical assets behind it. All Facebook has is tons and tons of users -- but it doesn't own the users. They don't belong to it, and they can migrate away from Facebook as fast as they arrived. In other words, it's a company you would be paying a lot to invest in, which doesn't have an obvious path to additional growth, and which is in a high-risk market with a substantial possibility that it will lose its user base in the medium to long term and thereby become effectively worthless.
That's not something I would pay a lot of money to invest in.
Re:They announce this now? (Score:0, Insightful)
People dont hate facebook, some whiny self entitled geeks hate it. Self loathing people that like to hate EVERYTHING because they are incapable of creating anything for themselves.
The masses really seem to like it despite minor easily forgotten complaints regarding interface changes.
It isnt just for cashing out for minor investors, that is a benefit, but the laws as of now essentially require a company that large to become public. Otherwise they have to comply with tons of laws without any benefit of being public.
Re:They announce this now? (Score:5, Insightful)
I wouldn't be so sure. Social networking is based almost entirely on Metcalf's law. The reason Facebook has value is that people use Facebook. But social networks are trend-based. And people hate Facebook. They only use it because their friends use it and vice versa; again, Metcalf's law.
You know the only difference between Facebook on the web today and Microsoft on the desktop in the 90s is that businesses (and sometimes the government) required Windows/Office and familiarity with it. Given adequate ubiquity, there's a large possibility [1] that this [2] could occur [3]... once it becomes de-facto standard, good luck getting rid of it.
[1] http://www.pcworld.com/article/240646/spotify_adds_facebook_requirement_angering_users.html [pcworld.com]
[2] http://www.slashgear.com/facebook-access-becoming-mandatory-part-of-job-college-applications-06217136/ [slashgear.com]
[3] http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501465_162-20027837-501465.html [cbsnews.com]