DISQUS

Nate Too · 2 years ago

Yes, I think you're being a bit too harsh. But, I think anyone developing applications for a closed platform, especially FB, is well aware of the risk of obsolescence. My guess is that this is the number one factor that will drive developers to focus development efforts in Open Social and Android.

This is funny, if you haven't already seen it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SH9iEn8Jfk

Joe J · 2 years ago

I think you are absolutely right on. This is an age old problem between a platform and application. The general rule is that the platform will generally swallow up applications that are "Too Close" to the platform. The key for an entreprenuer is to inovate a true application rather than a small feature on the platform. Also, I predict that Facebook will eventually write "Killer Apps" for Facebook. This is much like the "Killer Apps" for Windows(Word, Excel & PPT) are written by Microsoft. As an app developer, the key is to understand this and to truely differentiate your offering. It is time for the Facebook application developers to develope real applications rather than trinkets that can easily be replaced.

Rob Giardina · 2 years ago

This has been happening in the Apple world for a long time. Many of the innovations happen outside of the Mac operating systems and suddenly Apple swoops in and destroys the innovator's entire business model (Sherlock, Quicksilver, many more). We respectfully mourn them for a short time -- it's appropriate -- but in the end, we knew it might happen and the developers did too.