Jeff Verkoeyen, Facebook's Lead IPad App Developer, Leaves For Google

On Monday, Jeff Verkoeyen, Facebook's lead iPad app engineer, announced on his blog that he had quit Facebook and moved to Google.

Verkoeyen wrote that he was "frustrated" with working 80 hours a week on a project whose launch date kept being pushed back without explanation. Though his blog was down at the time of this writing, TechCrunch wrote that Verkoeyen said the iPad app has been "feature-complete" since May.

In July, TechCrunch released screenshots of what appeared to be a polished Facebook app for iPad. Verkoeyen's blog post confirmed that TechCrunch's pictures were indeed of the app he had been working on.

"It is now nearly 5 months since the app was feature complete and I haven't seen it released except for when the project was leaked on Techcrunch [sic]," Verkoeyen wrote, per TechCrunch. "Needless to say this was a frustrating experience for me. The experience of working on this app was a large contribution to the reasons why I left Facebook, though that doesn't mean it wasn't a difficult decision."

It was rumored that Facebook's iPad app would be announced at the social network's recent F8 conference. However, that never happened.

While Verkoeyen didn't say for sure what has caused the app's delay, he worried that the app "may never be released," according to a quote taken from his blog post by Business Insider.

Business Insider surmises that the delay could have something to do with Facebook's rumored tensions with Apple or the social network's struggles with its mobile division as a whole.

It's also been rumored that Facebook has been building a web app platform (codenamed Project Spartan, according to TechCrunch) that could swipe at Apple's dominance in the mobile app space.

Mashable reports that Facebook's iPad app might launch next week. According to Mashable's tipster, the announcement will take place at a rumored event on October 4, which many expect will revolve mostly around the announcement of the iPhone 5. But nothing about that event (not even its date) is official yet.

Meanwhile, Facebook's iPhone app remains a favorite among users. In January 2011, the app appeared at the top of iTunes's list of the most popular free apps of all time. A Facebook-made iPad app could possibly follow suit.

In a CNBC interview on Thursday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg offered no clues about the app's feature set or its release date.

Comments

[Tone67]

08:51 AM on 09/27/2011

5 months eh, well they were probably still writing that novel otherwise known as terms and conditions

[AnasChulyodan]

03:33 AM on 09/27/2011

hmm, too much facebook

[Jackie Gill]

12:44 AM on 09/27/2011

So who will put an iPad app out first FB or Google+? FB has had plenty of time and the fact that they still don't have one makes them seem a bit yesterday...

[MIMom]

10:53 PM on 09/26/2011

I hope they release it soon. However, H/P's app keeps crashing and double posting people's comments all the (blinking) time. I don't have much hope.

[Zeroes]

10:12 PM on 09/26/2011

Who cares.

[catalyst1219]

08:09 PM on 09/26/2011

It's weird that there isn't an app already. My touchpad has a pretty awesome Facebook app and that platform is dead.

[CaptainObvvious]

06:37 AM on 09/27/2011

There are plenty of iPad Facebook apps... Just none that are developed by Facebook. The alternatives are polished and functional... It is just strange that Facebook doesn't have an OFFICIAL app.

[YoBear]

07:56 PM on 09/26/2011

A facebook developer comes to the realization that something is fishy with Facebook. Sometimes it's easier to see these things from the outside. Who knows what agenda Zuck has in mind here. Maybe he has a vendetta against Apple? Well, best wishes to the guy at Google. Good move on his part.

[opressor]

07:36 PM on 09/26/2011

Gawwwd...Who cares!!! just use your browser if you have a pad...supposed to be the "laptop killers" weren't they? so use it like one.

[YoBear]

07:59 PM on 09/26/2011

A well tuned app for the I-Pad is s thing of beauty. Yeah, the browser works, but when someone makes a dedicated app it's much nicer.

[bjlloyd1]

09:20 PM on 09/26/2011

You say that as if the Facebook app for, say, iPhone, is actually better than the mobile version of the site. I've found the complete opposite to be true, which is a bit unfortunate.

[stopgeorge]

08:04 PM on 09/26/2011

LOL! They are hardly "laptop killers".

[Blackstonia]

10:24 PM on 09/26/2011

It's all a bunch of marketing hype.

[opressor]

02:52 AM on 09/27/2011

exactly! but lord stevie said so!!! ;-)

[coldrestart]

07:26 PM on 09/26/2011

I don't know if this guy's naïveté is cute or just sad.

If you're a grunt and someone else signs your paychecks you don't get to decide how and if your hard work is used.

Will having someone else sign his checks (i.e. working for Google) be any different?

[Jay from Ottawa]

07:33 PM on 09/26/2011

If he's lucky he'll be working for himself next.

[Niki Spencer]

07:45 PM on 09/26/2011

I'm sure Google paid him a boatload of money to jump ship and defect. Those two are forever luring developers away from each other. This is nothing new... I vote sad.

[William Winters]

07:12 PM on 09/26/2011

Bet he feels like a sucker now: http://mashable.com/2011/09/26/facebook-ipad-app-iphone-app-exclusive/