Facebook has finally answered the question that’s been bugging Wall Street and the rest of us, “when are you going to get mobile?”
Yesterday, the answer came as Facebook launched major upgrades to their iPhone and iPad apps. From the N.Y. Times Bits blog:
Those who have suffered from the sluggishness of the current apps can breathe a collective sigh of relief: these new versions are much faster.
The apps look nearly identical to their predecessors. The main difference is that most of their old Web-based code has been replaced with the native programming code used for iOS
Even more, Facebook has gone all Google Plus on the issue (you know Google making social everyone’s responsibility):
In recent interviews, Facebook executives said they have retooled the organization so that every product team is working on mobile, and the company holds weekly training courses on programming for Apple and Android devices.
The Verge is reporting that these updates make the apps twice as fast:
In building a native Facebook app for iOS, the company looked at improving three key places, “the app’s largest pain points” all relating to speed: launching the app, scrolling through the News Feed, and tapping photos inside the News Feed. “We’re twice as fast in all these areas,” Mick Johnson says.
I’ve been playing with the app and the claims appear to be true. This is good news for Facebook fans (and stock holders) because slow apps can be killer for growth.
**Sorry for the “native” joke, but I couldn’t resist 🙂
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