More than a year has passed since the original iPad was released, and there is still no official Facebook app optimized specifically for the iPad. While many users choose the option of using the enlarged Facebook app made for iPhone users or downloading one of the many third party Facebook apps available, presumably nothing beats having the official Facebook app that’s specifically formatted for iPad users.
Luckily, it appears that the wait is coming to an end, as Facebook insiders recently said that the official iPad app is set to release some time in the coming weeks. It has been in the designing, developing, and testing stages for several months, with reports saying that even the company chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg on board with the intricate detailing process.
It will be a free application, which will have many Facebook users – some of whom have been paying $0.99 for ad-free third party Facebook apps – sighing with relief. The move is expected to boost Facebook usage, which has been reported as slowing down in recent months. Analysts are also predicting that the new release could possibly entice more people to purchase iPad 2 over the alternative tablet options on the market today. Overall, it’s a win-win-win situation: for Facebook, for Apple, and for the consumers.
While most of the details have been carefully kept under the wraps, it has been said that it will be similar to the iPhone Facebook app, but with unique formatting and more advanced chatting options for iPad users. Also, iPad 2 users will be happy to know that they will easily be able to take, upload and tag high resolution pictures and videos right off of their devices.
Hopefully there will be more fixes in the system, such as the chatting and instability problems experienced by users with the current crash-prone Facebook apps for iPad. While the third party apps have done an adequate job in keeping iPad users connected to Facebook, consumers have been complaining for months for Facebook to release its own app.
With over 250 million of Facebook’s 700 million users accessing the social networking site on the go, it’s almost shocking to think that the company waited so long to come out with the official Facebook app for iPad. Facebook released its iPhone app almost immediately after the creation of the App Store in 2008, but for unexplained reasons, the company has been lagging in the iPad apps department.
In the meantime, third party applications such as MyPad, Friendly, and Facely are working to fill the void for impatient Facebook users with iPads. And yet, while these apps have worked pretty well over the past year, most owners of both iPhones and iPads find themselves wishing they could just get the official app on both of their devices. With some patience, they ought to get their wishes granted sometime this summer.
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Good to hear they have official fb app for ipad. Thanks for informing us!
Why we had to wait so long?
I was able to run FB on Galaxy TAB months ago.
I hope it’s going to support all the features.