One of the best features of many of the Android running smartphones on the market is the ability to populate your address book based on the social data in your Facebook account. It’s been speculated that Apple always wanted to do the same thing, but instead opted not to; we now have proof that Facebook integration was indeed in the plans. Similar to how Windows Phone has deep hooks with Facebook, Apple wanted your Facebook photos to appear in the Photos app, your Facebook friends in the Phone app, and to give users the ability to upload content straight to Facebook. Will all these features eventually come to iOS? Chances are slim and none as rumors suggest Apple is creating something called “Media Stream”, which will show you all the images your friends uploaded with their iPhone. To us that sounds like a horrible idea. Remember when Apple launched Ping, a social network based around the music you purchase? Know anyone who uses it? Exactly.
At the upcoming Apple Worldwide Developer Conference we’re going to get a sneak peak at what’s new in iOS 5 and Mac OS X 10.7, and that’s all well and good, but what we really want to hear about is Apple’s attempt at making themselves credible in the web services game. Having margins of over 40% is nice in this industry, but it doesn’t exactly create customer loyalty, especially when other competing platforms promise to integrate so seamlessly with you online life. If Apple does indeed choose to take the “we’ll build our own solutions rather than partner with people” route then they may as well take a pistol to their head. Nokia wanted to make Ovi the leading platform of web services for mobile, and now look where both Ovi and Nokia are.
Maybe Apple will just have to learn the hard way.