Why FB wants integration with OS
Last week, the Internet was abuzz with news of a new Facebook-HTC phone codenamed “Buffy”-yes, named after the vampire slayer which may launch in the next 12-18 months. This is Facebook’s second attempt at having its site integrated with the OS. The last one, the HTC Status, had an integrated Facebook button which made sharing super easy. But it failed miserably. It is not surprising that Facebook wants to integrate with an OS. Look at Apple and Twitter. When Twitter was integrated with iOS, the Twitter user base grew exponentially. Google also integrates Google+ with its OS.
But dear Facebook, you are no Apple or Google. You may be one of the “four horsemen” as dubbed by Larry Page- who, according to him, are going to change the world but for me you are an app on my phone. I have enough trouble keeping up with your privacy updates and lists. I am wary of publicizing everything I do to hundreds of people without being notified. Remember I signed up on Spotify and next thing I know my wall was updated with which song I am listening to? Yeah, I don’t want that. I want to hear songs for my own enjoyment and no I don’t really feel the need to tell everyone that I am hearing that song. I took some time figuring out how not to show that update on my wall. But I am sure that the “Buffy” will create numerous such situations for me and I don’t want to deal with it!
Cautionary tales
I am sure that there is a market for Buffies. There is a subset of FB users-the 10-12 updates a day kind who will enjoy the seamless sharing of their life on FB. But I think that subset is pretty small to warrant a new phone. People use their Smartphones for a 100 different tasks other than updating status on FB. There is cut-throat race between existing players to bring out innovative technologies and enriching ecosystems that support the device. With so many considerations for a consumer and so many worthy options to choose from, will they really go for a phone just because it is tightly integrated with FB? I don’t think so. I even heard a rumor of an IPO coming sometime in the near future. And I would like to point out that FB may be having millions of users and have access to a huge amount of data but that is not enough to pull off and sustain an IPO. I don’t see any serious monetizing channels that will justify and sustain an IPO.
The whole point of writing this is that I feel companies sometime tend to overestimate their value and that messes up their strategies for the future. It is better instead to focus on monetizing and improving existing business model and get it right. As an example, just check the latest share price for Groupon.
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