Facebook launches feature phone app with Snaptu

by Scott Bicheno on 20 January 2011, 12:21

The rest of the world

Social networking giant Facebook has made a strategic move to expand its user-base in emerging markets by launching a new app designed specifically for feature-phones.

Remember them? Back when the family gathered around the wireless, eating powdered egg, mobile phones were primarily just that. Then we started to be able to receive live data, such as the footy scores on them and before long everyone got completely carried away and turned phones into little computers.

Well a lot of the world remains either disinclined or unable to drop a grand on a phone, and so still has to make do with feature phones that do a mere million things. They still represent a huge market and any company intent on world domination is compelled to cater to them.

The Facebook feature phone app has been developed in conjunction with Snaptu, which has had a feature phone data portal app available for a while, and is thus a seasoned veteran in producing just this sort of thing.

"The app provides a better Facebook experience for our most popular features, including an easier-to-navigate home screen, contact synchronization, and fast scrolling of photos and friend updates," said the announcement.

Here's the list of launch partners, with more to come. As you can see the focus is away from markets that already have extensive smartphone adoption, such as Western Europe and the US.

Launching today on m.fb.snaptu.com/f: