14 DAY TRIAL // This July, Facebook is preparing to unveil an HTML5 platform with automatic ties to the social service using a new set of APIs to make an iOS and Android social gaming platform. The project is codenamed Spartan.
According to TechCrunch, Facebook has a number of developers already signed up to do the heavy coding for this platform.
We’d be inclined to say jailbreak artist Geohot could well be one of the Spartans working on this project that, according to knowledgeable people, is not about going after Apple.
“I look at these apps and how content rich they are and how they have nothing to do with Apple and everything to do with Facebook and assume that they think we are retarded,” one developer quoted in the report said.
Apparently, there are plans to release a plurality of games that will be a part of the Spartan launch.
Whether or not Apple is helping out with anything, the whole deal is shaping up to look as if Google is the enemy.
And most likely, it is. They just rolled out something called Google+ and it has circles. That’s not very good for Facebook’s business, and Apple has long been a supporter of the HTML5 spec.
Another Spartan quoted by TechCrunch sheds more light on the initiative by providing his own opinion based on what he has learned since working on the project.
“Facebook wants a cut of the Apple’s mobile app market, that’s been clear this entire time.”
“Perhaps it’s not war against Apple — maybe Apple is just going to ‘gift’ Facebook the share of their market (the HTML5 share) in exchange an alliance being formed whereby Apple get’s some exclusive access to Facebook’s 600 million-plus users and thereby cutting out Google (exclusive to some degree, Facebook is too open for it to be fully exclusive)."
"In this theory, it’s not Facebook Spartans vs. Apple, it’s Facebook/Apple Spartans Vs Google,” he says.
According to several developers working on Project Spartan, Facebook has given instructions to code specifically for the iOS version of Safari — both iPhone and iPad.
Finally, the report notes, Facebook is planning to have Project Spartan ready by July 15. The public unveiling is said to occur sometime at the beginning of August.