Mark Zuckerberg: Facebook Mobile Mistakes Won’t Extend To Smartphone

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said there are no plans for the social network to release a smartphone, adding that it would be another mistake in its mobile strategy.

Speaking for the first time since the company’s problem-hit initial public offering , Zuckerberg called the decision to base its mobile services on web-based technology a huge error and said it should have built better applications directly on the iPhone and Android platforms.

He said that Facebook had “burned two years” on the wrong mobile technology and that a smartphone would be the wrong strategy for it to take. Rumours that the social network would release such a device, most likely with HTC, have persisted over the last couple of years.

Facebook mobile madness

Facebook’s share price has reached an all-time low of $17.73 (£11) since its flotation in May, but although Zuckerberg admitted that was disappointing and had affected moral, he remained optimistic about the company’s future, especially in the mobile arena.

He said that Facebook was integrating mobile into every aspect of its business and that advertisers were seeing better results on mobile than on PCs as the social network’s user base becomes increasingly mobile.

Zuckerberg also said that a new Android app was on its way following the recent launch of a brand new Facebook client and promised it would not force Instagram into the Facebook infrastructure, following its recent takeover.

Search is also an area which is increasingly interesting Facebook. Zuckerberg said that more than one billion search queries are made on the site every day and “we’re not even trying.” Most searches are for people, applications and businesses, but there are plans to extend this to cover things like restaurants and jobs.

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