Facebook App for iPad Coming Soon; third party apps to lose out

Social networking giant Facebook is finalizing its new app that will run on Apple's iPad, according to New York Times.

Facebook, which released its official app for iPhone immediately after the launch of Apple's App store in 2008, has not come with an app for the tablet device - iPad, which was released in April 2010.

The No.1 social networking site has been reportedly working on a free iPad app for more than a year and is in the final stages of testing, the New York Times reported citing sources familiar with the plans.

Currently, people have been resorting to third-party apps such as My Pad, iFace and Friendly for accessing Facebook on tablet devices, while many of the third party apps are currently operating in a risky space as the release of official Facebook app for iPad could curb traffic to their apps.

If Facebook releases its official app for iPad then iPad owners would prefer the consistent experience of an official Facebook app rather than third-party apps.

In terms of usage, Oecoway’s Friendly for iPad is the front runner among the third-party apps, which is having around 600,000 daily active users and ranked 59th in the top free iPad apps in the last month.

It is speculated that the upcoming Facebook application will address several issues from critics, who were saying that Facebook's web interface is not optimized for tablets such as iPad or any other touch screen interface.

According to those who have seen the app, it has a slick design that has been tailored for the iPad and its touchscreen interface. Insider sources says the app enables users read and post on Facebook, participate in Facebook chats, as well as upload photos and video.

Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Facebook, is said to have invested heavily in the project and personally supervising the development apart from fine tuning the unique and advanced features of the app. Designers of the app are also working hard to make the user experience compelling and sticky.

The company is also working on the site to improve the compatibility of the website with iPad.

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