Facebook iPad App To Be Released--Finally

It's been over a year since the iPad was released and despite the phenomenal success of Facebook's iPhone app, Facebook has yet to deliver an official app designed for the iPad.

That won't be true for much longer, reports the New York Times' Nick Bilton, who writes that Facebook is planning to release a free iPad app in the "coming weeks"

According to the Times, Facebook has been working on the app for nearly a year:

One person who works with Facebook said Mark Zuckerberg, the company’s chief executive and founder, has been heavily invested in the process, overseeing design decisions and the app’s unique features.

People who have seen the application said it has a slick design that has been tailored for the iPad and its touchscreen interface. Facebook developers and designers have also overhauled the Facebook Chat and Facebook Groups features for the application. And the app will go beyond the features available on the Facebook Web site by allowing users to shoot and upload photos and videos directly from the iPad’s built-in cameras.

Even as Facebook shows a willingness to invest in Apple's App Store and tablet, recent rumors have suggested that the social network is poised to compete with Apple head on by developing its own mobile platform based in Apple's Safari browser that could serve as a hub for games, Facebook apps, and other services.

TechCrunch writes that Facebook's intentions are to "use Apple’s own devices against them to break the stranglehold they have on mobile app distribution," adding, "with nearly 700 million users, Facebook is certainly in the position to challenge the almighty App Store distribution mechanism. But they need to be able to do so on Apple’s devices which make up a key chunk of the market."

Until Facebook has anything official to announce about its plans for Apple's mobile devices, iPad users can try using an app like Friendly in place of an official Facebook app for the iPad--the app essentially reformats Facebook to make it more tablet-friendly.

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Comments

[JunH24]

06:45 PM on 06/18/2011

i do occasionally use the iphone FB app, and must say that it does certain things better than the actual site does (friends list actually shows all friends right away, instead of having to choose from a submenu which ones you want to see; the whole thing just feels slicker somehow). uploading photos from an iphone directly to FB works as well; many people are doing it every day. so why is this 'new' feature on the iPad so exciting?

[JohnnyUh]

09:51 AM on 06/18/2011

Yay!!

This is SO NEWSWORTHY.

[jabreal00]

07:08 AM on 06/18/2011

I just use Safari to access Facebook on my iPad-2. It's a full browser experience.

[MrWampler]

06:25 PM on 06/18/2011

I can't upload images from Safari on iPad for some reason. Videos are also wonky, if they play at all. But it's true that the Safari Facebook is leagues superior to that awful app.

[tomjones]

04:48 AM on 06/18/2011

Facebook's fans have been yearning for the this app. The majority of iPad owners are Facebook users. http://tiny.cc/dir4n

[Guy Peters]

08:46 PM on 06/17/2011

Why is it that people must have a app for everything you do on the web? You have this full browser experience when you use safari. Well uploading pics. I take with my iPad 2 maybe one and then post my location may be number 2. There you go. Reasons

[CynicalAgnostic]

05:24 AM on 06/18/2011

Posting your location should be made avaliable via the website, as it is entirely possible via the html5 geolocation api.

[Hardyman1966]

04:20 PM on 06/17/2011

OK, even though it's slowly getting stuck in the La Brea Tar Pits, like MySpace.

[jo smith456]

02:55 PM on 06/17/2011

About time!!!

[nohup]

11:51 AM on 06/17/2011

Finally is right. I still use the Social app, which isn't even actively worked on any longer. I tried Friendly, but didn't really like it. Hopefully this will be something that's nice to look at *and* works without crashing (as much as the iPhone app).