Gemalto is a firm you probably never heard of, but they’re important since they make those tiny pieces of plastic that make your mobile phone actually work. Yes, I’m talking about SIM cards. Without one you’re carrying around what’s essentially a glorified camera and MP3 player. Today they’re announcing Facebook for SIM which will enable those people who are unfortunate enough to live in a part of the world with either terribly expensive mobile internet access or even no mobile internet access at all.
“Increasingly people want to be able to stay connected and communicate with their friends on Facebook anytime, anywhere,” said Henri Moissinac, Head of Mobile Business, Facebook. “Gemalto has developed a creative solution in Facebook for SIM that enables people without mobile data plans to stay connected to their friends on Facebook in an affordable way.” Philippe Vallée, Executive Vice President, Gemalto, added: “Facebook for SIM enables operators to leverage two of their main assets: the SMS to communicate with the web application and the SIM for application distribution to the masses.” Don’t people need the internet to sign up for Facebook in the first place?
Anyway, this is great news for the penny pinching crowd, but you’ve got to wonder, why would you want Facebook on the go in the first place? To kill the time during your morning commute? To check up on your girlfriend because you’ve got a sneaking suspicion she’s cheating on your? And if you’re too poor to use Facebook then chances are a large percentage of your friends are too, so why not use text messages like you already have been for staying in touch?
No word as to when this will actually launch or which operators are going to support it, but we’re pretty sure it’s going to be in a part of the world where you need to get some shots from your doctor first before visiting.