Author: Lucy

Since the social network split its applications into smaller, specific offerings, some interesting trends have developed.

When it comes to the Facebook mobile app, there are actually quite a few from which to choose, and what is interesting about the download stats is that it is the Messenger application that is proving to be the most popular, even over the main flagship offering from the company.

The two social apps have been available since 2012 and the Messenger offering is notably more popular.

In fact, from 2012 through the first six months of 2015, the Messenger mobile app from Facebook has managed to bring in over 646.6 million downloads throughout that time. This, according to the app analytics from the Sensor Tower firm. Throughout that same span of time, the flagship Facebook social media app was able to achieve an impressive but notably lower 568 million downloads.

Aside from those two Facebook mobile apps, none of the brand’s other applications even come close.

Facebook has a range of different applications available for various purposes, but aside from those top two options, none of the other options are nearly as popular. To put it in perspective, all of the other Facebook apps, combined (aside from the flagship and Messenger options) have accumulated a total of 637.5 million downloads, total. That is about 9 million downloads fewer than Messenger’s total, all on its own.

What should be noted is that a number of the Facebook applications are from the company’s Creative Labs division. The purpose of that team is not necessarily the generation of the largest number of downloads. Instead, it is to use its app offerings to better understand the overall Facebook usage experience so that the primary apps can be enhanced to fit the wants and expectations of the users.

For example, the company learned a great deal its mobile apps such as Paper, so that it would be able to better design its instant articles feature, which makes it possible for news organizations to make social network posts of their articles directly onto Facebook. In the case of Messenger, though, the application has managed to hold the first position at both the Google Play and App Store ranks for quite some time.

The company is seeking a new hardware partner to have a device to offer by the end of next year.

Nokia, the company that had sold its phone business in April 2014 to Microsoft, has now announced that it will be moving back into the mobile market, once more, and that it will have a new device available for purchase before two years have passed.

By late last year, it hopes to have found a new hardware partner and will be selling a device.

The company initially left the mobile market when its sales had continued a decline over several years. Microsoft now sells its range of smartphones and tablets that boast the Lumia brand. In November 2014, the company launched a tablet that is based on the Android operating system, called the Nokia N1. It used the tech, design, and logo of Nokia under license. That said, the manufacturing, distribution, marketing, and tech support were provided by Foxconn.

Now the company has announced that it is going to take a similar step into the mobile market for smartphones.

It is currently looking for a smartphone partner that will handle all of the manufacturing, distribution, marketing and customer support for its smartphone business. According to a Nokia Technologies spokesperson, Robert Morlino, “If and when we find a world-class partner who can take on those responsibilities, we would work closely with them to guide the design and technology differentiation, as we did with the Nokia N1 Android tablet.”

Morlino pointed out that it is only in this way that the “bar would be met for a mobile device” that they would feel is up to the standard of the company’s brand, and that consumers would be happy to purchase and use.

Nokia also explained that a smartphone would become available no earlier than in the fourth quarter of next year, when the company would be able to sell a Nokia smartphone under that brand name, again, because the agreement with Microsoft will no longer prohibit it from doing so.

This announcement followed only one month after Rajeev Suri, the CEO of Nokia, announced that the company was seeking suitable partners to re-enter the smartphone branch of the mobile market.