back to article How long will it take Facebook Home to hit 1bn downloads? 76 years

Facebook Home has been downloaded 500,000 times from Google's Play store since it was released by the free content ad network earlier this month. If the app was to continue to be downloaded at that pace then it would roughly take 76 Gregorian years for Facebook to have 1 billion Android users running the software, which skins …

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  1. sisk

    Facebook Home?

    No thanks. A Facebook app? Maybe, if it offers a better experience than mobile.facebook.com (which, currently, it really doesn't in my opinion), but letting Facebook take over my home screen? No, that is never, ever going to happen.

    As for iOS, wouldn't a home screen replacement be one of the things automatically denied in Apple's walled garden according to their developer rules?

    1. JDX Gold badge

      Re: Facebook Home?

      If I was a big FB user - it was the main thing I did on my phone - I'd probably welcome better integration.

      As for iOS, you are right BUT sometimes big players get special rules/exceptions, for instance WP has built-in Twitter/FB/etc functionality (which you can ignore). It is unlikely IMO though.

  2. Gav
    Alert

    Ain't big enough for the both of them

    Of course you won't get Home on the iPhone. There is only room for one overlord of your phone (and, no, one of the options isn't you). If Apple have already gone to the trouble of hooking you, they are hardly likely to hand the fishing rod over for Facebook to reel you in. These companies wish to embed themselves on your devices and monopolise any money that flows within its reach. Sharing is not part of the plan.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What is, and what should be

    IMHO, it SHOULD take infinitely long for FBH to reach any downloads - I would hope people are smarter than that.

    Unfortunately, the old adage about "you will never go broke underestimating human stupidity" is true, and it FBH will likely reach that total long before the estimated time.

    I would HOPE people are smarter, but I KNOW they are not.

    1. JDX Gold badge

      Re: What is, and what should be

      Is this just the same old "only stupid people use FB" dross that you felt compelled to spew, or a specific critique on Home?

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I am shocked at the 500000 downloads... are people that dumb? is that 500,000 different account downloading it or just the same account 500,000 times?

    1. Lars Silver badge
      Coat

      I wonder how many Linux users we have based on the number of Linux downloads, I should know, still I am one user. Just forget the 1 billion unless you want to count cats, dogs and groups of what ever. Does it matter, not really, but damned silly still.

      1. sisk

        wonder how many Linux users we have based on the number of Linux downloads

        You and me both. I know that I download Linux about 3-4 times a year (sometimes to set up a new box, but more often to play with X-distro that someone said they liked for a couple hours before deciding I still like my distro of choice better).

    2. Darryl

      500,000 downloads to try it out... 499,358 deleted it after a few minutes' playing with it.

  5. h3

    The only useful thing that could come of this would be that someone produces a worm that posts something like the infamous goatse hello.jpg - After the effects of that perhaps people will remove it.

    1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

      Hmmmm. Apple got a bunch of people to shift from slide-to-unlock due to lawyers, I believe one of the routes gone down was that you had a 'ball' on your lock screen that you dropped into a hole for the app you wanted the phone to launch into. With goatse as the lock image, I'd hate to think what gets launched when you drop it there...

      1. Code Monkey
        Trollface

        If FB's Android app hasn't improved since I last used it, a goatse launcher would be most apt.

  6. ecofeco Silver badge

    That 66 Years longer..

    ...than it will exist.

  7. Donald Becker

    There is an easy solution: weekly updates. That way you get to multiple-count your users, even if they never open the app.

    You don't think that's a fair way to count users? You must not know the standards of this industry.

  8. Dana W
    Meh

    I don't get to have Facebook home? I'm sorry, I just don't see the drawback here.

  9. Dan Beshear
    FAIL

    How many of Facebook's "one billion" are …

    … from people with multiple accounts for games, affairs, stalking, FORGETTING, etc.

    Against Facebook's TOS? *SHOCK* Tell that to my 11-year old with three accounts and none of them under her name.

    1. zooooooom
      FAIL

      Re: How many of Facebook's "one billion" are …

      "Against Facebook's TOS? *SHOCK* Tell that to my 11-year old ...."

      Er, shouldn't you be doing that? ZOMG the kids are running wild on the internet!!!!!!!!!!eleventy!!!!!one!

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: How many of Facebook's "one billion" are …

      You let her use Facebook?

      Well, I understand there are uses. But really... why not teach them to use emails, skype and go outside. :)

      1. JDX Gold badge

        Re: How many of Facebook's "one billion" are …

        FB is compatible with playing outside and using emails but it would be a pretty crap parent who deliberately tried to stop their kid being up to speed with this decade's technology. Just because you don't get it... your parents probably thought having a personal stereo was equally terrible.

        1. JW 1
          FAIL

          Re: How many of Facebook's "one billion" are …

          Sooo, wrong. A good parent will keep a young person off FB. The anonymous teasing, put-downs and outright bullying are to ever present. Seen it too many times. My only slightly chubby 11 year old hears it too much in person. I'm not opening her up to that pain on that horrible site.

  10. druck Silver badge
    FAIL

    Mixed reviews?

    According to the BBC, half gave it one star and only 1800 Facebois gave it 5 stars, that's not mixed, that's overwhelmingly negative.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I'm not sure this is really news.

    Sure, downloads are low but I really doubt they were hoping millions of people would be flocking in. they've released it this way in addition to it's primary purpose - coming bundled on "facebook" branded phones. Users consciously downloading, installing and using it aren't what they are after I suspect. It's not for me and you, It's for the 8.99-12.99 a month contract phone demographic. Which is mainly those 14-18 years of age.

  12. g e
    Holmes

    500,000 Downloads

    Uh-huh

    And how many uninstalled after ten minutes? I know of one for certain sitting two desks behind me.

  13. IsJustabloke
    Meh

    Download numbers

    I think the number of downloads ia more than likely due to the fact that it was presented as just another update and as such many people will have simply updated it. It wasn't really obvious that it was really a completely different app to the one being replaced.

    Luckily I knew all about it so just uninstalled the app completely and have reverted to using Friendcaster.

    I control my use of facebook not the other way round.

    And before all you commentards start telling me how cool you are because you don'ty use FB at all please read the following...

    I don't give a fuck about wether you do or don't. FB is the best way to achieve the thing I use it for.

  14. green_giant

    I tried it just to see what it actually ran like and how polished the finished product was.

    What I found was that the product wasn't too bad for what its designed for but do you really want your background to be your friends posts? Do you want random photos with inspiration text that has been shared thousands of times to be shown as you unlock your phone, or really bad photos taken in bad lighting stretched to fill the screen from your friends nights out.

  15. Jason Hindle

    Tried it at the weekend and wasn't impressed

    As it is easy enough to switch off, it is worth trying. I did and ended up wondering what all the fuss is about. The home screen is nice, but nothing IMHO that couldn't have been achieved with a better widget (i.e. one designed to take up a whole screen). Also, it's buggy. One of my screens as a set of folders to short cuts (with names like Travel, News, Office and so on). Since the Facebook launcher doesn't seem to support folders, what I found was my short cuts were all strewn, seemingly at random across multiple screens. That didn't cut the best impression.

    Oh, and I didn't see how the product puts people at the centre of everything. If you want to make a call or send a text message, its back to the TouchWiz applications and address book.

  16. Daniel Bower
    Trollface

    No FBH on an iPhone

    At last there is a compelling reason to buy one...

  17. Nanners
    Childcatcher

    Doesn't matter

    Suckitburge had to realize this wouldn't take off. Facebook works by force, not choice. I got a feeling this was a test for a Facebook website revamp. Getting customers to beta for them.

    1. Captain Scarlet Silver badge
      Unhappy

      Re: Doesn't matter

      Feels like it

      /me tries to uninstall normal Facebook App and finds it reinstalls itself as I am to lazy to put a decent custom Rom on it

  18. Lallabalalla
    Thumb Down

    Mixed reviews?

    If it's anything like the quality of the iOS app - flakey, prone to crashing, takes ages to update, varies what it shows you from one hour to the next, hides some stuff entirely apparently at random and so on - then "mixed reviews" must mena there was actually a good one in there somewhere.

    Hard to believe, I know.

  19. heyrick Silver badge

    "Facebook currently has a little over 1 billion users worldwide on all devices."

    [citation needed]

    And an accurate one at that, not FB's skewed statistics.

    Oh, and for what it is worth, note the "on all devices". Well, I have logged in to FB on three phones (mobile website, never ever plan to touch the app on principle of it being uninstallable bloatware) and a computer. Does this count as one user or four? Hmmm...

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