Facebook and mobile OS usage

Yesterday Engadget reported that the Facebook for HypePhone app page listed 104 million monthly users for that app, which according to them is a puzzling number since apparently there are only 100 million iOS devices (HypePhone, HypeTouch, and HypePad) sold since June.

Well today Facebook got back to them, and clarified that the HypePhone app only has 44 million users. What does the 104M number mean, then? Well, apparently the app usage number would include friends who have either ‘Liked’ or commented on a Facebook post/picture/etc. done from that app. So if your friend posts a status or uploads a picture from the Facebook app on HypePhone and you comment on it from the web or your non-iPhone device or whatever, you will be counted as part of that 104 million.

The number, then, decreased from 104 million to 44 million for users of the HypePhone Facebook app. Therefore, the same can be said for other mobile OSes who have Facebook apps. BoycottBerry and Crapdroid have 60 million and 12 million users, respectively, according to their Facebook app pages. Given the new math, however, that number should be significantly lower.

And so we come to Windows Phone 7 and KIN, which have been getting a lot of press this summer on account of their supposed Facebook app usage numbers. As of this morning, WP7 has 10,895 users and KIN has 54,942 users listed on the Facebook app page. In particular, the KIN was the most intriguing of all, since it was supposedly adding users (and lots of them) even after it was discontinued. With Facebook’s clarification, though, we now know that these numbers are false, and should not be used as an indicator of mobile OS adoption.

Who knows, maybe Facebook will reverse their methods to count usage so that ONLY users who actually use the app are counted. I’d love to be able to construct a chart showing Windows Phone 7 usage increase over time once it’s released, showing it eventually surpass the Crapple HypePhone. 😉 One can only dream…