Ahead of Facebook’s announcement today, Adam Leach, principal device analyst at Ovum provides his perspective on how Facebook should move forward.
Adam Leach, principal device analyst, Ovum:
“Today Facebook will announce its ‘new home on Android’. There has been much speculation about what this will be, ranging from introducing a more deeply integrated Facebook app for Android all the way to launching its own “Facebook” phone.
“But why is Facebook doing anything at all? The company wants to increase its engagement with its users and in particular its users accessing the service over mobile. To achieve this Facebook needs a mechanism to deliver its own services to a portfolio of devices. If this can be achieved with an Android Facebook skin or a co-branded phone then this will be better for Facebook as it avoids upsetting its current phone and platform partners and removes the immediate need to launch its own branded devices.
“Whether Facebook needs to launches its own-branded devices depends on how ambitious Facebook is in moving into new consumer services which it currently does not provide. Facebook currently relies on the good will of its partners to carry the Facebook service. If it intends to move further into delivering digital services and go head to head with its consumer tech rivals such as Google, Microsoft and Amazon. This will bring Facebook into conflict with its current partners and will require the company to have more control over the platform and the devices it delivers the experience to.”
Image: Michal Bonikowski
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