Facebook's new "App Center" might sound like an app store, but it is not. Rather, the App Center is a way to encourage people to use Facebook-affiliated mobile apps, by helping them find useful and entertaining apps. It's partly a discovery or search tool, partly an incentive for developers to work with Facebook and hence part of Facebook's effort to maintain its platform relevance.
It also is one example of how device and application providers now are orienting their businesses around a “mobile first” strategy.
Facebook says there are more than 4,500 separate applications that integrate with Facebook.
The company also took the opportunity to highlight the role it has played in driving mobile application sales. It has released statistics indicating that Facebook sent users to the Apple App Store 83 million times in May alone, and sent iOS users into installed applications 134 million times during the same month.
The App Center is rolling out immediately in the United States and will be made available to users in other countries over the next few weeks. It is intended to replace the Facebook website’s existing Apps and Games interface.
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