|
This is the year of owning it all in the tech industry. After yearsof speculation, major tech companies including Apple, Google, andMicrosoft are finishing up their ecosystems that tie your music,photos, videos and documents to digital devices deeply integratedwith online storage and sync. Not wanting to be left out of theparty, Facebook may soon be vying for a piece of that end-to-end dream with aFacebook-branded smartphone. Mobile computing is becoming increasingly important as users turntoward tablets and smartphones for everyday computing. Facebooksaid that as of late April an average of 500 million people accessthe social network through mobile devices every month. With so manymobile users, Facebook needs a strong mobile presence. Facebook is worried that if it doesn t make its own smartphone thesocial network will be just another app forced to exist onthird-party mobile platforms, according to The New York Times . The problem with depending on third-party mobile platforms such asAndroid, iOS, or Windows Phone is you have to play by the rules setout by Google, Apple, and Microsoft. Facebook can t, for example,offer purchases using Facebook credits on its iOS apps. To getaround this issue Facebook was rumored to be working on an HTML5-based application platform for mobile devices codenamed Project Spartan , and the social network s newly announced App Center may be the beginning of that plan. But owning your own smartphone solution, if you can convince peopleto buy into it, is even better than relying on the Web. If you ownthe hardware, you can shape the consumer experience the way youwant it to be -- and shut the other guys out. So Facebook may be getting down to work on a potential smartphone.We ve already seen some signs of this such as Facebook breakingdown its mobile presence into three apps: core social networkingwith Facebook, photo sharing with Facebook Camera , and messaging with Facebook Messenger. And who knows? Perhaps thefuture will also see more apps such as Facebook Contacts, FacebookEvents, or Facebook Video. The company is also busy hiring peoplewith experience building smartphone hardware, according to theTimes. There are also rumors that Facebook is looking to purchasethe Opera Web browse r, giving the company another important piece for a futuresmartphone. While Facebook purportedly scrambles to make a device, othercompanies are almost finished rolling out their solutions. Googleembeds its numerous online services into the Android mobile OS, andis making a play for PCs with Chrome OS. Apple is using its newonline sync and storage solution, iCloud, to complete itsend-to-end offering that includes mega popular mobile devicesincluding the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. Microsoft s Windows 8 for PCs and tablets, expected later in 2012, will include theMetro-style, touch-friendly interface and feature Hotmail, SkyDriveand Bing baked right in. The rumored Windows Phone 8 , codenamed Apollo, is also expected to feature deep integrationwith Windows 8. Then, there are the dark horse candidates also hoping to convertusers to their ecosystems such as Lenovo and Acer. Lenovo wants toprovide personal cloud storage and sync tied into smartphones,tablets, PCs and televisions. Acer launched AcerCloud, aniCloud-style sync service that shares music, photos, videos anddocuments between devices. Both companies announced their plansduring the Consumer Electronics Show in January , but have yet to prove they are viable candidates. With so many end-to-end platforms out there already is there even room for a Facebook phone ? Connect with Ian Paul ( @ ianpaul ) on Twitter and Google +, and with Today @ PCWorld on Twitter for the latest tech news and analysis. We are high quality suppliers, our products such as China GPS with BT , China portable car gps navigation systems for oversee buyer. To know more, please visits 4.3 inch gps navigator.
Related Articles -
China GPS with BT, China portable car gps navigation systems,
|
