As we bask in the warm afterglow of yet another Facebook announcement, this one about Instagram launching its new video feature, it's easy to grow nostalgic for the last time Mark Zuckerberg and co. made a big announcement.
The Facebook Phone that wasn't...
It was on a bright spring's day in early April when media types and members of the tech blog illuminati gathered at the social networking behemoth's Menlo Park HQ for the last big reveal. What they were expecting was the highly anticipated Facebook phone. What they got instead was Facebook Home; an app suite designed to run atop the Android OS. Home was made available as a download or could be acquired pre-loaded on a crappy HTC phone that no one really wanted.
Now, nearly three months later, Home has thus far failed to be the game-changer Facebook was banking on it being. And while it's true that more than a million users have downloaded it since its release, that's such a small faction of Facebook's billion+ monthly user base that it's almost insignificant.
HTC First comes in last
Meanwhile, the HTC First phone Home comes preinstalled on has been an unqualified flop. The device had its price reduced by AT&T (at one point it was available for $0.99) and its release in the UK has been postponed indefinitely. Rumors are circulating that on his recent trip to S. Korea, `The Zuck' reached out to Samsung about building a new phone for Home to reside on, and received a polite "No thanks" for his efforts.
Having failed to significantly impact the market, and with an accompanying device that's basically a liability, the prevailing view is that Facebook Home is a failure.
But is it?
Reassurances from The Zuck
"We haven't really made our big push yet," Zuckerberg explained earlier this month, before an assembled meeting of shareholders. He also informed shareholders that the company has been gathering feedback from users on what kinds of changes they'd like to see with Home.
"Home is the first version of Facebook that was really designed from the ground up to be a mobile product," explained the hoodied billionaire. "There was no real way we were going to get everything right the first time."
Recently Facebook updated the Facebook Home launcher, the software that actually allows the platform to rule over your Android smartphone. It now includes a "Favorite Apps" tray that allows users to easily access applications on your phone other than Facebook Home.
Could it be that Facebook has realized that even the most diehard users will eventually want or need to use their phone for something other than Facebook?
A Bit of "Business Jujitsu"
But while Facebook Home, having largely underwhelmed users thus far, has been recast as a work in progress by Zuckerberg, not everyone is ready to write it off as a failure just yet.
Wired's Ryan Tate called Home "brilliant business jujitsu," noting that the platform's placement between operating system and apps perfectly positions it to command user attention, while burying the Google app store, Android apps and most other traces of the Android OS beneath a layer of taps, swipes and clicks.
This also puts Facebook's ads center-stage for users, while Google's are underwater with the OS and the rest of the Android apps. This could indeed prove a savvy bit of placement, especially as Facebook continues to hone its mobile strategy.
The danger for Facebook is that should Home start to really catch on with users, Google may feel it's being undermined by the interloping presence and block the software. If that happens, Home may suddenly find itself...homeless.