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Help me fill in the blanks: iPhone platform versus Facebook platform
Comparing the iPhone platform versus Facebook platform
I’ve recently been pondering the key similarities and differences between the way the Facebook platform ended up getting executed versus the iPhone platform. It’s an interesting trend now that other mobile players are thinking about opening a platform and providing an app store as well.
How would you guys add to the following table?
| Facebook platform | iPhone platform | |
| Pricing | Free | Free or $0.99 to $999.99 |
| Distribution | Primarily viral (invites, newsfeed, etc.) |
Primarily app store |
| ??? | ??? | ??? |
| ??? | ??? | ??? |
| ??? | ??? | ??? |
What else should be in this table?
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http://discussionleader.hbsp.com/haque/2008/08/...
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Cost to develop apps
Categories of popular apps (like solo vs. group as stated above.)
Platform (FB) vs. communications channel (iphone)
To previous commenter - iphone profiles http://www.louisgray.com/live/2008/09/iphones-m...
Crashability - FB= high, Apple = low. ;-)
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Coding language:
Facebook = anything like PHP/Ruby/Python/ASP/JSP
iPhone = Cocoa
Extra hardware:
Facebook = none
iPhone = Intel-based Mac running 10.5 Leopard (probably good to have an iPhone too)
Market Size:
Facebook = 100 million users
iPhone = 5 million activated phone (rough guess)
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Audience: Apple: People who pay $200+ for cell phones & $60+/month service Facebook: Anyone with access to a computer with an internet connection.
Mobile Internet Penetration Among Userbase: Facebook: ? iPhone: 100%
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easy payment experience for consumers (ie: one click)
natural native gestures / UI
location information availability
always with you
offline availability
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IPhone supports location-based apps, where Facebook only supports MAYBE what city you're in (though the network or GeoIP).
Should there be a row that describes the difference between the "always in your pocket" nature of a phone app and the "when I remember to browse to it" nature of Facebook?
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The difference being that the usage data is available for FB apps, but not for iPhones. For example, out of the 1M+ Tap Tap installs, what's the usage pattern? I, for one, played about 3 songs before deciding that it was boring and went back to playing Sudoku. Two weeks later, I discovered it was still on my phone and uninstalled it. But that kind of data isn't available.
It probably doesn't matter for paid apps, but for free apps, especially those hoping to monetize with the numerous iPhone ad solutions in the works, it could be important to know, but probably won't ever be.
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# Active Users
State of developer relations
Ease of getting started as a developer
Cost of developer tools (while everyone who is a developer will already own a PC, most will not own an iPhone, and what software will they need in which to program)
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- Comparison of the incentive funds of each platform
- Engagement potential with respective hardware constraints (shameless plug http://tinyurl.com/5sqofs)
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