from Hacker News

Introducing The App Center

by akarambir on 5/9/12, 9:16 PM with 48 comments

• by yangez on 5/9/12, 11:22 PM

  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.

• by bobwise on 5/10/12, 1:20 AM

  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."

• by cmelbye on 5/9/12, 10:25 PM

  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.

• by acanby on 5/10/12, 3:02 AM

  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.

• by bgilroy26 on 5/9/12, 10:27 PM

  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?

• by masonhensley on 5/9/12, 9:51 PM

  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.)

• by soup10 on 5/10/12, 2:37 AM

  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.

• by nigham on 5/10/12, 12:53 AM

  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.

• by chadyj on 5/9/12, 10:11 PM

  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.

• by lakshmibalu on 5/10/12, 5:34 AM

  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

• by Tyrant505 on 5/10/12, 1:21 AM

  What if this causes apple to pull the facebook app?

• by spaghetti on 5/9/12, 10:12 PM

  Apparently developers will be able to charge fixed price for their apps: http://gamasutra.com/view/news/170047/Facebook_now_allows_de...

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

• by zomgbbq on 5/10/12, 3:14 AM

  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

• by GuiA on 5/10/12, 5:23 AM

  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).

• by captaincrunch on 5/10/12, 1:11 PM

  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.

• by hkmurakami on 5/9/12, 10:22 PM

  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.

• by wilfra on 5/9/12, 10:56 PM

  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.