We’ve been waiting for the Facebook iPad app for a little while now, especially since TechCrunch’s preview earlier this year. In fact, it was done by then, says former Facebook developer Jeff Verkoeyen. The only thing that kept it from us was politics between Facebook and Apple.
Verkoeyen was the lead developer on Facebook’s iPad app for eight months, so he can speak with some authority when he writes on his blog that the app was ready to go as far back as May. But Facebook kept pushing the release back later and later into the year. So frustrating was the situation that he finally quit and went over to Google. Full disclosure: Verkoeyen’s blog is down as of this writing, but a tweet of his links to it here.
So what happened? TechCrunch writes that the app never saw release because of Apple and Facebook’s inability to reach an agreement about the social network’s integration into iOS 5. Facebook remains glaringly missing from core iOS functionality, and they believe it stems from terms that Apple didn’t like. Which sucks, because the platform is still there begging to see the light of day.
All this also kind of explains the HTML5-variant Facebook is allegedly cooking up known as Project Spartan. If Apple is locking them out, Facebook can go around them and leverage all their new features without restriction.
But without any official word, we’ll just have to wait and see. [TechCrunch]
Update: Mashable has learnt that Facebook has lots in store for Apple’s iPhone 5 announcement on October 4. According to Mashable’s sources, Facebook will show everything: their iPad app; a revamped iPhone app; iOS 5 integration; and Project Spartan. Which would all, of course, be grand. Provided Apple does show the iPhone 5 next week. And despite loads of talk about the event itself being a more intimate affair to be held on the Cupertino campus, Apple has yet to give us something so basic as the date. We’re still waiting.