Matt Gillis, head of global monetization for mobile advertising company Millennial Media spent much of last week talking with developers at the WWDC. He says developers can’t wait for iOS 6 and Facebook to show up on Apple’s mobile devices.
CNET:
The key verdict from WWDC: a lot of excitement over the closer integration between Apple and Facebook. Developers are licking their chops waiting to tie their apps into Facebook, allowing the apps to show up in news feeds and eventually solving the problem of getting them in front of new users.
“They’re excited by social integration and how it helps with discoverability,” Gillis said. “If you can make discovery easier, it drives chart position, which drives more downloads.”
Some apps have decent Facebook integration, but it’s a tedious process. The new features included with iOS 6 will make it easier for developers.
Developers are also excited about Passbook, a quasi-digital wallet that some believe could end up surpassing Google Wallet in the mobile transaction arena. Gillis says, “To me, it seems like a step forward for brands to engage. It seems like it will make m-commerce easier.”
While there isn’t necessarily a direct connection with developers right now, interest in Passbook could lead to more money and investment going into mobile payments, which will eventually benefit the whole ecosystem, he added.
