The launch of Google Plus has triggered an enormous amount of buzz over the past few weeks, and rightfully so. By amassing a user base of over right around 20 million since launching a month ago, Google has immediately become a legitimate player in the social networking mix. Their impressive growth makes Plus the fastest growing social network ever—faster than juggernaut Facebook’s rise. However, this buzz has subsequently taken significant attention away from an initiative by that other social network that will almost certainly overtake the headlines we’re reading today.
Project Spartan?
Dubbed “Project Spartan,” Facebook’s HTML5-based platform will be optimized for mobile Safari and will give Facebook the ability to sidestep Apple’s arduous App Store approval process. This will not only give Facebook more control over their platform, but will also reduce the time-to-market for new development, easing the burden on their developers and partners. The platform will be expected to house applications developed by both Facebook and third-party developers and will bring with it the ability to purchase applications and make in-app purchases with Credits. Instead of working to succeed playing by Apple’s rules with applications on iOS, Facebook is attempting to build an operating system which may ultimately allow them to compete with the App Store itself.
Spartan seems directed straight at Apple and it’s closed system, but in taking an HTML-based approach to the table against native mobile applications, it challenges not only Apple, but also its native-App-centric challengers, Google and Microsoft with their Android and Mobile Windows platforms respectively.
Facebook’s mobile intentions seem genuine. Beyond Project Spartan, Facebook has been making a concerted effort to gain mobile market share, purchasing multiple mobile companies over the past few months. Working with INQ mobile, Facebook will be bringing multiple smartphones to market on the Android Platform with deep integration including mobile chat, news feeds with images and videos, and location-based check-ins.
If social is big, mobile is massive
Where mobile is headed, and how fast its headed there helps put things in perspective. Justifiably respected analyst Mary Meeker (KPCB) paints the picture better than most if not all. A few highlights from presentations she’s delivered in the past year:
- Mobile Internet ramping faster than the Desktop Internet did – and its not even close
- Smartphone + tablet shipments should overtake PC shipments this year
- Social Networking is accelerating the growth of mobile
Change on the horizon
Whether we view Project Spartan as anti-Apple, anti-native App, or simply pro-Facebook, what we do know is that with over 700 million users, Facebook’s continued efforts to assert themselves on mobile devices should get considerably more interesting when the platform is released. And, Spartan could be the kind of thing that takes the hardened cement Zuckerberg has poured with Facebook and reinforces it with steel – the timing and the approach are compelling and completely aligned with Facebook’s offering.
Watch those headlines.
Elsewhere on the Web
- Mary Meeker – Internet Trends (New York CM Summit June 2010)
- Mary Meeker, Matt Murphy – Top Mobile Internet Trends (February 2011)
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