

Introducing The App Center - akarambir
https://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/2012/05/09/introducing-the-app-center/

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yangez
Facebook's App Center has a distinct advantage over alternatives: they have
much more information on the users of their apps. Also, because ratings are
based on real names, they'll have a much easier time preventing ratings spam.

Because of this, Facebook has the potential to develop a more accurate app
recommendation engine and solve the problem of app discovery. If Facebook can
make their platform more merit-based than the capricious Apple App Store, both
users and developers will flock to them.

And this isn't even considering Facebook's social graph. Not only could
Facebook recommend apps based on your demographics + interests, it could also
recommend them to you based on how much you previously liked the games that
some of your OTHER friends liked. Things like this could add a whole new
dimension to app discovery - all completely exclusive to the Facebook
platform.

~~~
magicalist
> Facebook's App Center has a distinct advantage over alternatives: they have
> much more information on the users of their apps. Also, because ratings are
> based on real names, they'll have a much easier time preventing ratings
> spam.

How bad is the ratings spam problem? (I'm not a mobile app developer)

Don't Apple and Google require a credit card to have an account, which means
there's at least some barrier to making accounts to spam? They also have data
on if a user actually downloaded an app they're rating, if they've made many
ratings before or if this is a brand new account, etc. Meanwhile, there are
already "Like" farms that you can pay to boost like counts on Facebook for
your content.

It seems like if there's motivation to spam ratings, Facebook won't have a
great advantage over the problem.

~~~
cageface
You don't actually need a credit card to open an iTunes account now. You
didn't need one when I opened a Google account either and I don't think that's
changed.

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bobwise
It's an app store for apps that only run inside the Facebook app. Facebook is
a platform in a platform - the "Inner-platform effect".

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inner-platform_effect>

"The inner-platform effect is the tendency of software architects to create a
system so customizable as to become a replica, and often a poor replica, of
the software development platform they are using."

~~~
ja27
It's for more than just canvas apps that run inside Facebook. It's also for
apps that use Facebook login, but they can be full-blown iOS or Android apps
like Draw Something or web apps.

I wonder if they'll allow apps where Facebook Login is just one authentication
option, like Draw Something. I'm guessing not for the little guys.

~~~
ThomPete
Eligibility

These apps are eligible for the App Center:

An app on Facebook.com in a canvas page A mobile app built for the web, iOS or
Android that uses Facebook Login A website that uses Facebook Login and has an
immediately logged-in, personalized experience (see App Quality for more info)
An App for Pages built to manage or enhance other companies’ Facebook Pages

~~~
ja27
Right, but what does "uses Facebook Login" mean? Can it be optional and still
get in their App Center? They mention Pinterest but their app allows login via
Twitter or their own account infrastructure. I guess we'll see.

~~~
ThomPete
It means (I believe) that the app needs to somehow use the FB api.

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cmelbye
This is fantastic. It might solve the issue of low quality apps on Facebook,
and it's awesome to see that they're using their knowledge on who their users
are in developer analytics - that's something Apple can't provide.

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acanby
This is a good way for Facebook to leverage existing mobile App
infrastructures without stepping on too many people’s toes. Developers are
responsible for developing an app, and putting it on as many stores etc as
they like. In this sense, there is no additional lock in by using the Facebook
App Center if you are already using Facebook Connect.

I think the big question is - what happens for paid apps? Will Facebook be
asking for a cut of any referrals? Take Draw Something for instance, which is
$1.99 (or free). I know Facebook gets benefit from people playing and using
Facebook Connect, but they have essentially handed that store the sale. I
would think they would want to monetize this, and will be interested to see
how this plays out. I wouldn’t be surprised if agreements are in place - as it
would really be of mutual benefit.

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bgilroy26
Is total sales volume good metric to compare the Ubuntu, Apple App store,
Amazon app store, Facebook App Center, the Microsoft Metro app store, and
Google Play with one another?

Is the consensus that Google Play has too many free apps and they need to move
many more apps for the same $ volume? Should app stores be working to
establish a more enterprise-y (Amazon and Microsoft) or sophisticated (Apple)
culture so that customers expect to spend money?

How serious is the potential for one successful store to sell
HTML/CSS/Javascript apps that start eating the other stores' lunches?

Is Facebook in good shape because others' apps won't run directly in its
domain? Or is it more vulnerable because it has so many vendors working
against it to make "sticky" apps that could pull them away from the Facebook
experience altogether?

~~~
Trezoid
App stores should make it _easier_ to pay for the apps without having to
register a credit card. Going for an enterprise feel won't help if people
don't want to (or can't) register a credit card but can't pay any other way.

Apple has done this _extremely_ well with the iTunes cards, which has made
people more inclined to pay for apps.

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masonhensley
I took a quick peek and am not familiar with the Facebook app ecosystem; but
am I getting it right that if you develop an HTML5 Facebook app that it will
be able to run inside of FB's native application on both iOS and Android?

Or is this just a showcase for Facebook enabled applications (native & web.)

~~~
tomwaddington
Yep. It'll run within a Webkit frame on Mobile.

~~~
wilfra
Performance would then be similar to a native app or similar to running on the
mobile browser?

~~~
TazeTSchnitzel
If I remember correctly, iOS Mobile Safari performance is significantly worse
within App Store Apps, possibly a deliberate restriction.

~~~
wilfra
Mobile Safari performance is absolutely worse than a native app. That is why
I'd like to know how the HTML5 apps running within a webkit frame in the FB
app will perform. If the answer is similar to a native app it would allow
HTML5 apps to 'code once and deploy everywhere' within FB's apps. Which would
be f%$&ing amazing.

I suspect however the answer is that they'll perform simliar to Mobile Safari,
which as others have mentioned has some pretty severe limitations for all but
the simplest HTML5 apps.

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soup10
HTML5 Apps for mobile are such a lost cause for non-trivial apps. Native apps
have so much more control over the user experience and aren't crippled by poor
performance. Facebook and other internet companies that think HTML5 is a
viable choice for mobile are naive and putting their monopolies at risk.

~~~
bignoggins
It doesn't need to be an html5 app it can be a native app that uses Facebook
login

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nigham
The most interesting thing about this is that it's the first app store that
will be available across devices. You could (potentially) own an Android phone
and an iPad; but today you need to buy two copies of the app. With Facebook,
you only need buy it once.

~~~
ja27
It's not a store. There is no purchasing through Facebook (except for I guess
apps that run on Facebook, rather than Android or iOS). It's just a user
review site like hundreds of others except for the scale.

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chadyj
This is a good move. With the proliferation of Facebook apps there needed to
be a better way to discover apps, especially ones that your social network is
using. It is a social version of Apple's App Store.

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lakshmibalu
The app center will be a milestone in mobile computing process. The developers
will definitely get their share of income by placing their android or iPhone
based applications.This platform will be easy to find their app by the random
users who will otherwise find it difficult to search the apps.
<http://www.techendeavour.com/Mobile_Application_Development>

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Tyrant505
What if this causes apple to pull the facebook app?

~~~
spaghetti
I'm Curious: what's the incentive for Apple not to ship the FB app w/ iOS like
they do w/ Twitter? Seems like Apple would benefit from all the consumption of
Facebook on the iOS devices.

~~~
rahoulb
There were many rumours of forthcoming iOS/Facebook integration a while back -
but then it all went silent.

I guess they couldn't agree legals, but all we have is speculation.

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spaghetti
Apparently developers will be able to charge fixed price for their apps:
[http://gamasutra.com/view/news/170047/Facebook_now_allows_de...](http://gamasutra.com/view/news/170047/Facebook_now_allows_developers_to_sell_their_games.php)

Wonder what this means for the App Center running on iOS?

~~~
jonnycoder
I suspect the Facebook Apps will be HTML5 embedded in Facebook? The Apple App
Store still has the advantage of native apps. Is this basically the Chrome Web
Store but built within Facebook (full access to user's data)?

~~~
untog
I think the App Store terms forbid that, though- that's why game emulators
have so much trouble, they're not allowed to download remote code.

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zomgbbq
I am wondering how this will be implemented on iOS without violating the App
Store Review Guidelines.

> 2.7 Apps that download code in any way or form will be rejected. > 2.8 Apps
> that install or launch other executable code will be rejected

~~~
chc
JavaScript executed through the SDK-provided API are exempted — otherwise you
couldn't have any apps that displayed the Web at all.

~~~
zomgbbq
I believe the rule is that the Javascript cannot be dynamically downloaded. It
must be a static resource that ships with the phone.

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GuiA
Their screenshot of a fake phone is interesting.

I've been convinced for a couple years now that Facebook's next big thing will
be a Facebook phone (likely based on Android, but partnering with a single
manufacturer).

~~~
buss
Fake phone? I see a Galaxy Nexus and an iPhone.

~~~
mapleoin
_Ceci n'est pas une pipe._

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captaincrunch
I'd like to get my start-up (Verelo.com) using this, but its more suited for
technical/IT guys.. is this something that would fit in? We've been mostly
going with places like Heroku Apps, Wordpress plug-ins, etc.

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hkmurakami
Apple: App Store

Google: Android Marketplace

Facebook: App Center

If you take all combinations of similes for "App" and
"Store/Market/Center/Hub" and trademark all of them, I wonder if some random
company could become a _trademark troll_.

~~~
mullingitover
You missed Amazon: Appstore

And Apple went after them for trademark infringement, so we already have our
trademark troll.

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wilfra
Finally!

This is the beginning of the end for Zynga. Quality will now drive users to
new games, not news feed spam and who has the biggest userbase to promote to
or the biggest marketing budget.

Bravo Zuck! Though I suspect Zynga's declining growth led to this decision
more than them wanting to level the playing field.

