Facebook Home debuted yesterday, but Microsoft is already taking issue with the "people first" approach of the new app: they say Windows Phone already did that years ago.
"I tuned into the coverage of the Facebook Home event yesterday and actually had to check my calendar a few times. Not to see if it was still April Fools Day, but to see if it was somehow still 2011. Because the content of the presentation was remarkably similar to the launch event we did for Windows Phone two years ago," Frank X. Shaw, Corporate Vice President of Corporate Communications at Microsoft, wrote on the company's official blog.
Shaw then lists all the ways he says the Windows phone environment allows users to focus on their contacts and friends instead of the methods of communication necessary to reach those people.
"Instead of rows and rows of apps, why not have a screen full of the people that matter most to you, and start with them? Instead of having to launch an app to see what's behind that notification icon, why not just bring the content to the home screen? Instead of having SMS and Facebook Messaging as separate chat threads, why not bring them together in one conversation?" Shaw writes.
Facebook Home does include many of these features. The skin sits atop the Android operating system on a mobile phone, pulling the Facebook News Feed onto the home screen and integrating Facebook messaging, email and contacts into the regular operation of the phone and the default user experience.
Of course, whether Windows Phone carries out this broad vision of integration is a matter of opinion, and Microsoft and Windows certainly aren't the only companies to try it. BlackBerry 10 includes the BlackBerry Hub feature, a common space for messaging, contacts, videos and music and social media.
Indeed, it's odd that Microsoft is complaining, since the company owns a 1.6 percent stake in Facebook, but it demonstrates how cutthroat the mobile phone industry has become. Or perhaps Microsoft is upset that Facebook didn't choose to develop Home with Windows Phone.
In any case, expect plenty more comparisons as both companies jockey for a larger market share in the crowded industry.
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