As a whole, it’s very clear that Home isn’t fully baked
yet. Facebook’s launch version of the software is fairly well made and
the concept is intriguing, but I think it’s just a taste of the things
to come.
From the user’s standpoint, Home is not for everyone. It’s certainly not for me. But we all know plenty of people who check their Facebook news feeds every time they pick up a phone, and who constantly post photos, links and status updates. Facebook Home is for them.
For these users, Home has the potential to completely change the way they use their smartphones. The lock screen, home screen and app grids are no longer barriers standing between users and their Facebook friends. Just pick up a phone, tap the unlock button and Facebook immediately takes center stage.
It should be noted, though, that the home screen and lock screen are one in the same with Facebook Home, so any security the user has in place sits behind the photos and status updates that appear on Home’s main screen. In other words, even if you protect your phone with pattern or PIN code security, anyone can still pick up your phone and scroll through your friends’ photos and status updates.
From a business standpoint, I like Home. I like it a lot.
Taking advantage of Android’s open nature as opposed to building an own-brand smartphone or a Facebook operating system is absolutely the right move. It’s obvious — Android smartphone sales as a whole will always dwarf sales of any one handset or any smartphone line, so why limit your reach when the only thing that matters is putting your services, and ads, in front of users’ eyeballs and collecting as much data as possible?
And make no mistake. Ads and data collection are key here.
Facebook launched Home without any advertising tie-in, but the company has made it clear that ads are coming. And beyond any direct revenue benefit Facebook sees from adding advertisements to Home, of course, the software itself serves a clear and important purpose: Gather data.
Home immerses users in Facebook. Facebook, Facebook and more Facebook. The moment they pick up their phones, they see Facebook photos, status updates, shared stories and more. This entices them to like stories and post comments. Moving on to the app launcher screen, nice big buttons above the application icons beckon users to post status updates, share photos and check in, thus recording their locations on Facebook’s servers.
Of course, the more status updates, likes, shared photos, comments, shared links and check-ins Facebook sees, the better it can target ads. The better it can target ads, the more likely people will be to click on them — and the more likely companies will be to continue advertising on Facebook.
And this reinforces the notion that Facebook made the right move by launching a new product on top of Android rather than its own platform or an own-brand phone. Why spend a huge amount of time, money, R&D and other resources building an operating system or a phone when you can launch Home using a fraction of the resources and potentially reach an exponentially larger number of users?
From the user’s standpoint, Home is not for everyone. It’s certainly not for me. But we all know plenty of people who check their Facebook news feeds every time they pick up a phone, and who constantly post photos, links and status updates. Facebook Home is for them.
For these users, Home has the potential to completely change the way they use their smartphones. The lock screen, home screen and app grids are no longer barriers standing between users and their Facebook friends. Just pick up a phone, tap the unlock button and Facebook immediately takes center stage.
It should be noted, though, that the home screen and lock screen are one in the same with Facebook Home, so any security the user has in place sits behind the photos and status updates that appear on Home’s main screen. In other words, even if you protect your phone with pattern or PIN code security, anyone can still pick up your phone and scroll through your friends’ photos and status updates.
From a business standpoint, I like Home. I like it a lot.
Taking advantage of Android’s open nature as opposed to building an own-brand smartphone or a Facebook operating system is absolutely the right move. It’s obvious — Android smartphone sales as a whole will always dwarf sales of any one handset or any smartphone line, so why limit your reach when the only thing that matters is putting your services, and ads, in front of users’ eyeballs and collecting as much data as possible?
And make no mistake. Ads and data collection are key here.
Facebook launched Home without any advertising tie-in, but the company has made it clear that ads are coming. And beyond any direct revenue benefit Facebook sees from adding advertisements to Home, of course, the software itself serves a clear and important purpose: Gather data.
Home immerses users in Facebook. Facebook, Facebook and more Facebook. The moment they pick up their phones, they see Facebook photos, status updates, shared stories and more. This entices them to like stories and post comments. Moving on to the app launcher screen, nice big buttons above the application icons beckon users to post status updates, share photos and check in, thus recording their locations on Facebook’s servers.
Of course, the more status updates, likes, shared photos, comments, shared links and check-ins Facebook sees, the better it can target ads. The better it can target ads, the more likely people will be to click on them — and the more likely companies will be to continue advertising on Facebook.
And this reinforces the notion that Facebook made the right move by launching a new product on top of Android rather than its own platform or an own-brand phone. Why spend a huge amount of time, money, R&D and other resources building an operating system or a phone when you can launch Home using a fraction of the resources and potentially reach an exponentially larger number of users?
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