In my recent involvement with a start-up company, a venture capitalist advised us not to develop a Web presence. With limited resources, we were told that our focus should be on developing the app. According to the New York Times article "A Billion-Dollar Turning Point for Mobile Apps," it turns out that the VC's advice was not unwarranted. Developing an app as the primary user interface seems to be especially important for social start-ups. Professor S. Shyam Sundar, a director of the Media Effects Research Lab at Pennsylvania State University, says “People are living in the moment and they want to share in the moment. Mobile gives you that immediacy and convenience.” It's no surprise then that Facebook saw Instagram as a smart investment. Instagram allows you to take, alter, and instantly share photos with other users and on social platforms like Facebook. Many other social apps such as Foursquare and Path are also built on the foundation of instant sharing and have a limited Web presence.
Rumors are circulating that Facebook is even developing its own smartphone. What would this mean for the future of mobile? Facebook is currently the ultimate Web platform, where millions of users log on every day to share and view content, play games, and chat with friends. Obviously they would like to remain the ultimate platform as usage behaviors increasingly shift to mobile. What do you think about this? What would it take for you to switch to a "FacePhone?
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