Facebook is a mobile company. Already. FULL STOP. In fact, as much or more so than AT&T or Vodafone or Telefonica or whatever local carrier you use in your country or region. In fact, as much as Google or Microsoft or Samsung or Nokia -- only different.
So I am mystified by the digibabble and speculation surrounding a potential Facebook phone -- whether a good idea or bad is a secondary issue -- and the continued chatter and noise that refuses to acknowledge what is versus the continued hope for what might make money for investors with little or no value for users like you and me.
First and foremost, more photos and status updates are posted to Facebook from mobile sources than from computers. DUH!!! Why is this a surprise? Why is it even written about? If all we did was sit at our desks, think about how boring life and Facebook would be. We are all out and about -- restaurants, shows, museums, movies, stores (yes, stores), parks, vacations, sports events, you name it -- with our friends, significant others, families, whomever -- OF COURSE WE POST. That is the point, no?
Cellphones began our liberation and smartphones continued our exodus from slavery to freedom. No longer were we chained to cables and no longer were we limited to voice calls.
The carriers were at a loss -- they wanted greater value than they could get from a mere pipeline, they wanted to charge premium prices for the data they carried, and while they were the original abolitionists of the tyranny of place, they became complacent, collected fees and engaged in price wars. Meanwhile the Googles and Apples of the world were re-imagining the way we untethered.
Search went local -- as did we -- and as we go, so goes Facebook and Instagram and just about every other social platform idea you can think of, not to mention those that were created to be obviously walkabout like Foursquare, Waze and OKCupid, which allows people to scout dates based on their location.
Bottom line: Facebook is mobile -- as mobile as you and me. What they haven't figured out is how to charge for it, make money from advertising, create bigger shareholder value... although I'd bet most of us agree that user value is still fairly high.
All of which leads us to the matter of the Facebook phone. WHY? Limit development to one maker of hardware? Limit access to holders of a piece of plastic and metal? CRAZY!
Access is in fact the new ownership -- who cares what hardware I have so long as I can access the Facebook platform? Make me better apps, more useful sharing tools and YES, please figure out how to deliver me the right advertising in the right way so you can make some money and continue to develop your platform and not end up charging me for access....
Guys, follow the content... please. Don't follow the analysts who still don't get what mobile is and who only want to drive stock price, not user value.
Listen:
"The only reason I made a commercial for American Express was to pay for my American Express bill." Peter Ustinov
I hope that Facebook doesn't lose the plot.
What do you think?