Facebook has made yet another plunge in mobile platform to spread its wings. One of the popular social network has finally confirmed the acquisition of mobile platform app developer - Snaptu. Israel based Snaptu which develops apps for feature phones as well as smartphones disclosed the deal on its official blog. As part of the deal, Facebook will pay Snaptu about $60-$70 million and Snaptu would be working as part of Facebook team.
Snaptu develops applications for the feature phones - the phones which aren't smart but possess mobile Internet connectivity and allow installation of Java ME or BREW based apps. Facebook, along with Snaptu, had launched the new Facebook App for popular features phones that consisted of about 2,500 different models.
Facebook service already has been visible with tighter integration inside the Android OS for INQ handsets and also HTC ChaCha as well as Salsa handsets. That's evidence enough to see how series Facebook is about intoxicating every user with the service.
With acquisition of Snaptu, we'll get to see the social network's deeper integration in feature phones as well. It won't be surprising to see Facebook centric features phones being launched by year end. In fact, the feature phones segment has large volume of users who don't wish to or can't spend a lot on a smartphone. It's not the first time Facebook has addressed the feature phone segment as earlier the company introduce the 0.facebook.com which was basically image-less version of the service. Let's hope this deal brings us better mobile web experience of the service.
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