Facebook In Talks With Nokia

by Carlo Longino on 12. Feb, 2009 in Mobile Phone Evolution

The WSJ is reporting that Facebook and Nokia are in talks about how to embed the social network into Nokia devices, mentioning the possibility of integrating Facebook contacts and activity with the device’s phonebook. That’s not quite the complete Facebook as Mobile UI idea, but it’s definitely a step in the right direction, and one that I think will be fairly common in new handsets by this time next year.

Of course, the WSJ post has the usual caveats, including this huge one:

Nokia is deciding whether it wants to team up with an established Web player like Facebook, based in Palo Alto, Calif., or to build a social network from the ground up, said people familiar with the talks.

While experience tells me otherwise, I have a really hard time believing that’s much of a choice. I’ll repeat again what I said in September:

“So, to sum up, if you’re an operator or a handset vendor, don’t try to sell your users on some new social-networking site. Make it easier and better for them to access Facebook, or MySpace, or whatever social site they’re already invested in. Don’t try to sell them on some new IM service that’s closed off to most of their friends; make Skype or AIM or MSN work better on their handset.”

The news of talks is an encouraging sign that Nokia is getting this — maybe next week at MWC they’ll have something solid to announce.

What are your thoughts? Am I off base in thinking that integrating services like Facebook into mobile devices is a no-brainer?

—–>Follow us on Twitter too: @russellbuckley and @caaarlo

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  • I agree, this is a no brainer. Phone manufacturers should jump on the Facebook bandwagon and try to leverage off of existing technology. Surely it would be more profitable!
  • H.K.
    I suppose the integration is inevitable when facebook is investigating every which way to derive profits from itself without compromising the user's experience.

    Creating one from scratch to become anywhere near what facebook has is almost laughable. You were dead on in your September comments. Hopefully this integration won't bring on more security risks, this digital security site will probably cover it if they come up, so I'll be checking it.
  • Good for Nokia! Building its own social network it's not easy. Facebook want to invest on mobile market, Nokia want a social network. It's just perfect.
  • Well it is complicated to say - to build a new mobile social network - whom else has the power other then Nokia to do this?

    On the other hand, isn't it better to just team up with the largest player in the world? From my user perspective, it would be best - on the other hand the question also is, if Facebook will share for example e-mail contacts with Nokia, and will want to send messages via Facebook, or allow Nokia to send them through e-mail.

    Normally e-mails are not accessible via Facebook for app. developers - and if Nokia does, then I believe it will be OK to move with the relationship.

    It's a complicated matter, and will be interesting to see how it gets resolved.

    Otherwise on Symbian, any 3rd party developer could come in and connect phone book and Facebook contacts - that's fairly easy.

    And let's not forget the Facebook side of things - if you have all your phone contacts on Facebook, that gives a lot of strength to these guys for moving forward and acquiring new people, as they will now about a lot of things going on.

    Jan
  • I said as much over on the TechCrunch coverage:

    It's the web.

    Why would a hardware manufacturer (or an operator for that matter) dare to think they should be gatekeepers of a good mobile experience on a particular online service.

    Nokia's doing a better job of providing higher level services in addition to the plastic - but still, that would suggest they should compete with Facebook.

    This is like AOL doing a deal with Compaq to get their web shortcut on a default PC install in the mid 90s. BFD.

    Anyway, all that aside, they should hook up with LinkedIn instead. A far more lucrative, aligned, demographic for the 'professional' aspect of the Nokia brand.
  • Agree on that no Nokia community or Samsung community would work. So to bring in an existing one might be good, but it only goes half way. Because like Teemu rightly points out, the lock-in is a barrier. Social netowrks by definition are open in all dimensions. Those are the best ones.

    Back to why a manufacturer or operator branded social network will fail: a) if you are a social netowrk user, well then you have by definition already made a choice and invested time to fill your profile and nurture that network. Hard to make the person shift then b) consumers gather in networks and tribes around common interests and passions. That is seldom a phone or an operator brand. Some in our industry might actually think so. If so that is just a sign that it is time for them to change jobs or at least get out in the real world and see how things work outside. That's the danger of working too long in our overly tech- and acronym heavy industry that historically has made a joke of itself in terms of really connecting to people other than the person with the purse to pay for the latest network upgrade etc.
  • From the user's point of view, yes it's a no-brainer. From the business POV, a rare case in which business interests don't necessarily align with user's.
    First, there's a lot of money involved and I think it's the deal making that has took time. Second, if FB would be the default contact bookin every new Nokia model, it would in effect give FB a dominant position: now it's FB paying but with a lucrative deal they would effectively get lock-in effect to Nokia's customer base. After a few years, power balance could shift and it would be FB that is dictating the rules. Not good for Nokia and in my opinion not good for users in the long-run.
  • I have to say, I could not be more excited to see this happening. However, at the same time, I'm amazed that it's taken this freakin long. S60 is (Android?) the only smartphone platform out there without a decent Facebook app, and it's downright frustrating. I really like the idea of [finally] adding useful presence info to my phonebook, too.
  • Richard Law
    I think this is a no brainer. The device manufacturers and service providers should stop trying to attract users to their lame social experiments. Go where the users are and make it easy for them to access the content and networks they want to access and they will beat a path to your door. Apple figured this out with the iPhone and the App Store... others are starting to wake up slowly.
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