Apple Working Together With Facebook on Project Spartan HTML5-Based App Store Alternative?

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Earlier this week we reported on a new Facebook-related rumor, the Project Spartan HTML5-based App Store alternative that the social networking giant was said to target Cupertino with. While still an unconfirmed story, we did elaborate on the implications of such a product and wondered whether Apple will try in any way to prevent Facebook from coming up with an actual App Store rival.

But now we hear that Apple might be in on the whole deal and that, in fact, the two companies are working together on this secret HTML5 project. Neither Facebook nor Apple (with the emphasis on Apple on this one) would comment on such progress as both companies would like to keep it as secret as possible. But in this business leaks are inevitable and now that’s the story is out on the web we can’t wait to see how it will unfold.

The relationship between the two companies in not that friendly though, according to some sources, and it would seem that Facebook, at the same time, is both scared of Apple, but also trying to use its clout in its negotiations with Apple. TechCrunch notes, related to Facebook’s alleged covert intentions to move developers, over time, from native apps to HTML5 apps:

So again, why not just say it? Because they’re scared shitless of Apple. That’s what this song and dance is really all about. One source familiar with the relationship between both sides compares Apple’s treatment of Facebook to an “abusive spouse”. Facebook has pissed off Apple in the past, and it has had ramifications. They have to tread lightly here.

The Facebook iPad app, which, curiously, hasn’t been launched in more than a year since the iPad started selling in stores, is one believed to be a leverage tool for Facebook, one that could coerce Apple into giving in to some Facebook demands. But I really doubt Apple can be handled by Zuck and Co. since, at the end of the day, Apple has huge control over something that Facebook will never have any influence, the products and the operating systems that makes them come to life and run, among other things, future Facebook apps and web apps.

Now Apple, even if ready to help Facebook, is not at all cared of a new app environment built on a standard that it favors. A web app store, developed using HTML5, filled with web apps would apparently not really be able to actually compete against the App Store, and I showed you various reasons why that is true, at least according to what we currently know about Apple’s app ecosystem, Facebook, HTML, and the web.

It’ll be interesting to see how this will pan out in the immediate and distant future, and we’ll certainly be here to cover Facebook’s relationship with Apple, Google, Microsoft and all the other mobile giants. After all, it’s crystal clear Facebook wants a piece of the mobile action, and by that I mean the pile of cash Facebook could collect quarter after quarter off the mobile business (image above is apparently showing off a Credits-based Project Spartan purchase model).

And speaking of Facebook we’ll remind you we have our own Facebook page waiting for your likes and comments, so we’ll be waiting for you down there too.