Facebook announces industry initiatives to help mobile developers

[MWC 2012] Facebook held a press conference at MWC 2012 earlier today to announce its plans to help developers reach more people, by helping them with distribution across all platforms. This means over the web on desktop computers to mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. The three key areas they’ve decided to focus on are: app discovery, mobile browser fragmentation and payments. Firstly, Facebook announced that Open Graph will soon be made available for Android. The service currently helps people discover iOS and mobile web apps, so the upcoming inclusion of Android support will benefit a lot of new developers.

To solve the mobile browser fragmentation issue, Facebook has come up with Ringmark, an online service that helps developers test the functionality of mobile browsers so they know which ones can support the functionality their apps need. All users have to do is visit the Ringmark page with a mobile browser in order to test it out.

Lastly, to help streamline payments, Facebook will be working with operators to support carrier billing. This will allow consumers to easily purchase apps without having to give away their credit card information – all they need to do is settle the purchase together with their phone bills.

George Wong
Categories: Cellphones, Web
Tags: Facebook, MWC, MWC 2012