No Definite Plans for Facebook iPad App for Now

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Do you remember the Facebook iPad app having been leaked a few months back? Well, we’re wondering what happened with the supposed release, ourselves. But it seems that particular app comes with a bit of behind-the-scenes drama between Apple and Facebook, with some collateral damage on the side.

Back in July this year, an iPad native Facebook application was found to be hidden underneath the official Facebook app for the iPhone. But while Facebook had promised to actually release the final version in a few weeks’ time, they ended up blocking access from hacked versions, making users wonder whether the app would be launched at all.

Those two weeks turned out to be months, and after a long silence, a low-key blog post from the developer who supposedly led the creation of the iPad app explains what happened. But the explanation isn’t really an official one, because Jeff Verkoeyen has already left Facebook to work for Google. He explains that he worked on the app for months, only to find it being shelved.

It is now nearly five months since the app was feature complete and I haven’t seen it released. Needless to say this was a frustrating experience for me. The experience of working on this app was a large contribution to the reasons why I left Facebook.

At the time of the leak, the iPad application was supposed to have been “feature complete,” which means it was only a step away from a public beta test. But what happened within Facebook that prevented the supposed launch of the app to the public? Sources say it was infighting between Facebook and Apple in for dominance the social networking sphere, or at least within the iOS ecosystem.

While Apple and Facebook had successfully worked together on a number of applications — such as the iPhone app — their relationship took a turn for the worse when Apple launched Ping. The service enabled iTunes users to connect with their Facebook friends via an API that was later on pulled out by Facebook. Then, when Apple announced iOS 5 earlier this year, they highlighted tight integration with Twitter, but did not even mention Facebook.

Will Facebook ever release a native iPad application? There’s nothing definite for now. But it seems that both companies are not exactly in good terms with each other. Apple is reportedly afraid that Facebook’s web-as-a-platform strategy will soon make mobile platforms obsolete. Meanwhile, Facebook isn’t doing well with mobile services. but Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says they’ll eventually release an iPad application, although there is no commitment as to when that will be.