Facebook for iPhone 3.0
Facebook for iPhone 3.0 is coming very soon. I can't predict an exact date when I will submit to Apple, but I can say that I am about 98% done. So what's new in this update? — 1. The “new” News Feed — 2. Like — 3. Events (including the ability to RSVP)
Context & Ripple Effects
This update closes a nine-month gap since Facebook rolled out version 2.0 of its iPhone app in September 2008, and follows March's Facebook Connect launch on the iPhone that wired third-party iOS apps into Facebook identity. Version 3.0 is developer Joe Hewitt's effort to bring the native app to feature parity with the web site.
The timing matters on both sides of the relationship: the iPhone 3GS went on sale days earlier with buyers queuing at Apple stores, expanding the addressable base, while Apple's App Store review process — already under scrutiny after a nude image surfaced in the free BeautyMeter app — is the gate this '98% done' build must clear before any release.
First-order effects
- iPhone users gain the new News Feed, a Like button, and full Events browsing with RSVP — three of the highest-frequency actions on Facebook finally usable from the phone rather than requiring a desktop visit.
- Apple's App Store approval queue becomes the only remaining dependency: Facebook cannot ship until review passes, making the release date Apple's call despite Facebook being 'about 98% done.'
Second-order effects
- With Likes and RSVPs available natively, more feed interaction shifts onto iPhones, raising the value of Facebook Connect integrations that third-party developers shipped earlier this year and pushing those developers toward deeper mobile hooks.
- Rival platforms' mobile apps are forced to match the cadence: a major social network updating its flagship iPhone app within months of each other resets user expectations for how quickly native clients track the web product.
Third-order effects
- The pattern points to the smartphone displacing the desktop as the primary surface for social networking, with feature-parity updates like this one marking each step of the migration.
- It also hardens Apple's position as an involuntary arbiter of social software distribution — every Facebook update must pass a single company's review, a chokepoint whose consistency was already in question this week.
The trend: Native mobile apps are rapidly converging on their web counterparts' feature sets, turning the iPhone into a first-class client for social networks and Apple's review queue into the industry's de facto release valve.