I Was Wrong About Facebook Inc (FB)’s Mobile Announcement

The funny part about this whole predicting the future thing is that it’s kind of an inexact science. Inevitably, I will be wrong on some accounts.

Earlier this week, ahead of Facebook Inc (NASDAQ: FB)‘s announcement on Thursday, I wrote an article outlining the many roadblocks the company faces in its attempt to embed itself deeper into the phone experience. After the announcement, I realize I missed the mark.

Zuckerberg and co calmed my worries that the announcement could be a disaster, and it looks like it’s created a great product in Home to extend its brand’s reach across the mobile platform.

Some quick background on Home

Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’s Home is a new interface that sits on top of the Google Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) Android operating system. It allows users to see what’s going on with their Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) friends directly from the phone’s home screen without even having to turn it on. The biggest focus of the Home interface is on connecting with people, particularly through messaging, which appears vastly improved over traditional messaging interfaces.

Where I went wrong

This article is not to make excuses about what I wrote previously. Instead, I’d like to examine the roadblocks the company overcame, and why they’re so important for this new product’s success.

Earlier this week, I wrote, “Instead of a link that pops up when users fire up the Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) Android app and installs the new OS feature automatically, the company must go through the phone manufacturers.” I could not have been more wrong! In fact, this is exactly how most users will be able to install Home on their phones.

While Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) still needs to work with phone manufacturers to ensure its software is compatible with the hardware, Facebook seemingly designed Home with the most popular Android phones in mind. The ease of install, and the broad advertising space of Android Facebook app users, should provide great user adoption numbers.

One of the biggest surprises, for me at least, is that Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) will be compatible with the most popular Android phone from Samsung, the Galaxy S III, and its follow up, the Galaxy S IV.Samsung’s share of the smartphone market trails only Apple, and it’s by far the biggest manufacturer of Android phones.