Facebook's 'Project Spartan' To Take On Apple: RUMOR

Following a leak Wednesday about a possible upcoming photo-sharing app for Facebook, TechCrunch claims that Facebook's next big endeavor, internally known as "Project Spartan," will establish a new mobile web app platform that could help the social networking giant gain independence from Apple's App Store.

Unnamed sources told TechCrunch that Facebook's new platform will be HTML5-based and will be compatible only with Apple's mobile Safari browser (at first). This means that when the platform launches, its entire customer base will be iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad users.

"As of right now, there are believed to be 80 or so outside developers working with Facebook on Project Spartan," writes TechCrunch, listing FarmVille developer Zynga among the partners. "These teams are working on apps for the platform that range from games to news-reading apps."

If the sources are correct, Facebook's platform will sidestep Apple's App Store and create a mobile marketplace all its own. Users will also be able to download and access apps directly from Facebook's platform.

"Forget the buggy Facebook app," Gizmodo says of the project. "iPhone owners could use a mobile version of Facebook that is lean, mean and outside the reach of Apple's control. [...] Here's something to think about if this rumor pans out. Adobe Flash is gone, Apple is gone and everything will be channeled through Facebook. Kinda scary, huh?"

Looking toward Facebook's financial goals, Techland writes, "If [Facebook] can get enough people using an iOS-optimized website, it can use that to sell them stuff too. It can sell apps that work within its web platform (as opposed to apps that have to approved by Apple first)."

Some, however, think Facebook might not be headed in the right direction. Gigaom, for example, writes,

Farmville, and many other social games that use in-game currency to make most of their money, have already found a profitable route to mobile thanks to Apple’s App Store. A Facebook offering might immediately appeal to some of these developers [...], but to prove a viable alternative in the long run, Facebook will have to either offer a better value proposition to devs (by giving them a bigger cut) or show that developers can reach more users than they do with native offerings. [...] For a store that resides entirely on the web, that’s a tall order, because it means convincing mobile users to shift their idea of what constitutes mobile software once again. It’s hard to understate how different it is to ask mobile users to pay for an application, versus asking them to pay for access to what basically amounts to a website.

The platform will launch "in the next few weeks," according to TechCrunch.

Comments

[John Armwood]

05:40 PM on 06/17/2011

I would not trust the people at Facebook to make anything properly. The people at that company seem to have integrity issues.

[TikiTakiDweller]

09:53 AM on 06/17/2011

This article does not make any sense:

1. The current Facebook app from the App Store is free. So Apple loses no money if FB goes to an HTML5 browser app directly from Facebook.

2. Facebook builds the app available on Apple's App Store. So if it is buggy (and it is) FB is responsible, not Apple.

3. The article mentions Flash, but the iPhone does not support Flash now, so that is a non-issue. In fact, Jobs is a big proponent of HTML5.

Now, perhaps FB does want to start charging money for an app or some additional features, and they want their own distribution channel so they don't have to share the revenue. That would make sense.

But the current iPhone Facebook app is free, and there really is no loss for Apple if FB no longer supports that.

This article was poorly researched, written, and edited!

[dbw53022]

07:34 AM on 06/17/2011

Gee - could it be that the only reason they're "going after Apple" is that the other mobile browsers don't support HTML5 yet?

[llibsetag]

04:04 AM on 06/17/2011

Apple will do a software update to Safari Browser for Mac/Win

[Merrell Michael]

04:16 PM on 06/16/2011

I have an Ipad. The facebook app for Ipad is terrible. If thats the quality that facebook has to offer, Apple has nothing to worry about.
Google, on the other hand....

[MamasLittleBoy]

06:13 PM on 06/16/2011

Not trying to be a smart aleck or rude (plenty of that around here), but when I stop think about it, other than search and maps, I don't see a lot of successful and innovative apps from Google. It seems they fail a lot, more than most. Sorry, I just don't believe in their super man mystique.

[RevSpaminator]

07:07 PM on 06/16/2011

I think they do fail a lot, but they are willing to try more things than anyone else out there. Android is a pretty big success and they don't even charge for it.

[blyan]

07:00 PM on 06/16/2011

There is no first party Facebook app for iPad... what are you talking about?

[billso]

10:23 PM on 06/16/2011

He means the FB iPhone app. And it is terrible.

[SuperBenFranklin]

03:30 PM on 06/16/2011

Lame apps in a browser won't be better than native apps.

[Valerio della Porta]

12:22 AM on 06/17/2011

Agree 100%, people don't use much Safari on the iPhone.

[born 2b different]

07:56 AM on 06/17/2011

Than what do they browse with?

[WilliamBradford]

09:53 AM on 06/17/2011

Actually, users won't know they are using Safari. The "apps" will still launch from an icon and display full screen.

Many iPhone/iPad apps today are simply shell programs the host a browser. The rendering engine is a browser, basically Safari.

[Sunzuki]

02:32 PM on 06/16/2011

Why are we reading about Facebook? Their isn't enough Apple articles on this site. Nobody cares about Facebook, people care about Apple. Every article should be about Apple. I know this is sort of about Apple, but I still don't think it's good enough, because it's partially about Facebook, which is not Apple.......... We want more Apple rumours, more articles on Apps, more gossip about Apple management, more pictures of Apple buildings, more pictures of Steve Jobs. Get a grip Huff Post, this isn't Technology news if it's not all about Apple!

[Onutz]

04:27 PM on 06/28/2011

Oh I get it. Sarcasm. Very clever.

[Channa]

02:14 PM on 06/16/2011

Will iCloud sync and share these Spartan apps? Nope. I expect this to be a lame project for this reason alone.

[CaptainObvvious]

02:27 PM on 06/16/2011

Great point actually.

I had no issue with the idea and thought it might be nice but with iCloud coming in it wouldn't be as functional as an app.

[poptartz]

01:01 PM on 06/16/2011

Despite the fact that I think it's going to be a flop.

There is no reason to think that people share links with each other if the webapps Facebook connect and login method,http://getth.at/iqtuo

[Richard Bell]

12:46 PM on 06/16/2011

Facebook should just work on making their website usable, and stop trying to be everyone else.

[inguatu]

12:16 PM on 06/16/2011

Brilliant. I'm glad to see more people taking on Apple and carving their own financial futures instead of letting Apple dictate what they can and can't do while taking a large cut of their income.

[theveggiedude]

02:03 PM on 06/16/2011

This is not taking on Apple, it's adopting Steve Jobs first vision for the iPhone. All apps were suppose to be web apps. SJ still says he welcomes web apps. It was the developers who cried and said they wanted API's to make native apps, so they got it.

[RevSpaminator]

07:04 PM on 06/16/2011

That sounds wonderful, except that Apple has made a killing on app sales. I doubt they want to see that revenue subside just promote the idea of HTML5.

[Onutz]

04:30 PM on 06/28/2011

I tried working with web-apps. Couldn't stand them. Glad they made the transition to native. Can't always count on a web connection.

[CaptainObvvious]

02:31 PM on 06/16/2011

All platforms take a cut of app sales.

This is nothing different than ANY store in the world.

The TVs on the wall at Best Buy were bought from the manufacturer for a lot less than the retail sticker says then sell it to you for more money making a profit.

This way Apple and MANY others do it is kinda like consignment. You put the product in the store for free without Apple buying it from you and sell whatever you want and then Apple gets a piece of the top.

Either way you do it the developer is making less than retail price but in the second model Apple is taking a 30% cut instead of buying it for 30% less then marking it up.

[The Noz]

12:06 PM on 06/16/2011

everyone knows apple and facebook will be taken over by http://thenoz.wordpress.com/

[CaptainObvvious]

11:59 AM on 06/16/2011

If they can get it to work then good on them.

I am a much bigger fan of app over optimized website any day of the week.

Of course I have yet to see it so who knows?