Zuck Interview: Working on Native Android App; Regrets HTML5; No Facebook Phone

[dgstorm]

TechCrunch recently had a lengthy sit-down interview with Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, and a few interesting tidbits cam out of the conversation. First of all, it seems that Mr. Zuckerberg believes that relying on HTML 5 too heavily was a mistake for the mobile Android version of Facebook. He indicated that they have reversed that course and are working on a native Android (and iOS) version of Facebook that will be faster and better in every way. Additionally, the Zuck reiterated that there will be no Facebook phone. He wanted to quash those rumors completely, and made it clear that a dedicated FAcebook phone would be the exact opposite direction that Facebook is taking. Here are a couple of quotes from the TechCrunch interview with details,

This first one is in reference to the Facebook phone:

“Let’s say we built a phone… hypothetically,” he said. And then immediately clarifying: “we’re not, by the way.”

“But if we did, we could get maybe 10 or 15 million people to use it,” Zuck answered. “The strategy we have is different from every other tech company that’s building their own hardware system, like Apple. We’re going in the opposite direction.”

He explained that Facebook wants to build a system that’s as deeply integrated as possible into every mobile device. Mobile web is “huge” for the company, and “no one is more integrated than [Facebook] on mobile web.

The second part of the strategy is iOS, and Zuck claims that the latest iOS update didn’t do much by the way of design, but it did get the app to where it should be in terms of performance. The third part of the strategy, according to Zuck, is Android, which they can integrate with very easily due to the “hooks” in Android.

This second one refers to the HTML 5:

“The biggest mistake we made as a company was betting too much on HTML 5 instead of native”

He also indicated that Facebook would be dropping HTML 5 in its Android and iOS apps.

Source: TechCrunch