Facebook jumped into the app store game on Friday with the launch of its new App Center. The service offers what the company called social apps for Web browsers and mobile devices, including Apple’s iPhone and iPad.
“The App Center features mobile and web apps, such as Draw Something, Pinterest, and Nike+ GPS, and new apps including Jetpack Joyride, Ghosts of Mistwood, and Ghost Recon Commander,” said Facebook’s Matt Wyndowe.
Facebook’s App Center goes live
App Center feeds users what Facebook calls personalized recommendations and lets you see which apps friends have installed. The feature is rolling out first to U.S. users in the Facebook apps for the iPhone and iPad, as well as Android, and through the Facebook website. The company is activating the feature for users in waves, so it isn’t currently available to all U.S. Facebook subscribers.
The move puts Facebook in competition — at least to a degree — with Apple’s App Store and Google Play, although selecting any app that requires a download, meaning something that isn’t a Web-based app, redirects users to Apple or Google’s own app stores.
Facebook said it is launching its App Center with 600 apps, and will be adding more soon.
2 Comments
Whatever happened with that lawsuit where Apple was claiming to own the names AppStore and (I think) App?
FB is calling it “App Center”, so that skirts around the “App Store” name.
I’m wondering what happened to the requirement that AppStore apps not allow purchases through any mechanism other than Apple’s AppStore mechanisms. The article says for apps with a downloadable version it redirects to Apple’s store, is this sufficient to get around the restriction? They are allowed to offer other purchases?? Because DropBox got in trouble for a link on the account creation page to purchase storage space which isn’t even directly competing with Apple.
Edit: Just thought of something. Maybe FB’s App Center isn’t available in the iOS app, just their web site. That would get around it just fine. Can you use these App Center apps within the iOS FB app though? Or in iOS Safari?
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