SAN FRANCISCO—Facebook Inc.’s on-again, off-again plans for an iPad application have finally reached fruition.
After
months of breathless speculation, Facebook rolled out the long-awaited
tablet app Monday. It’s available free from the Apple App Store, has
bigger photos and lets you play games on the go.
Apple Inc. and Facebook had been in negotiations over the app for months.
So
much for predictions. Bloggers had assured us that the iPad app would
be unveiled at Apple’s iPhone 5 event last week. Of course, Apple did
not unveil the iPhone 5 at that event, either. (It was the 4S.)
The iPad app could be a boon for Apple. None of the tablets running Google’s Android software have a tailor-made Facebook app.
For Facebook the benefits are obvious: An iPad app will help keep people tethered to Facebook.
Facebook
also added support for social games on mobile versions of its social
networking service. And that’s clearly a win for Zynga.
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