Facebook announces Mobile Developer Conference 2013
It has been awhile since Facebook hosted its last f8 conference in San Francisco, but its next series of events might lead to some major new product announcements down the line.
The Menlo Park, Calif.-based company has revealed details about Mobile DevCon 2013, a trio of events this spring in three of the largest cities on the planet intended to connect Facebook engineers, product managers and "like-minded mobile developers."
The Mobile Developer Conference series will kickoff in New York City on April 18, followed by a stop in London on May 2 and then concluding in Seoul on May 7.
Noting that there are over 680 million active users on mobile, Facebook reasserted that it has been focused on improving mobile offerings over the last year, citing improvements across both the iOS and Android apps, re-engineering the iOS and Android SDKs, and launching dedicated developer centers for iOS, Android and mobile web.
Furthermore, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg also stressed Facebook's commitment to mobile at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco last fall while knocking HTML5 in favor of native apps.
With news of these mobile-focused development events, it may seem natural for some to rehash rumors of a dedicated Facebook smartphone.
Nevertheless, based on Zuckerberg's repeated denials of such a device as well as the list of topics that will be covered at Mobile DevCon, it still seems very unlikely.
Facebook engineer Simon Cross also mentioned in a blog post on Tuesday that these are "highly technical" events in which "we'll be deep in product and code."
For reference, some of those topics that will be covered at Mobile DevCon include how to implement mobile SDKs to drive installations and engagement, how to implement Facebook Login and Open Graph, and more about which techniques Facebook uses to build its own mobile apps.
interested mobile developers, engineers and product managers -- or anyone else "at the sharp end of mobile app development" -- can pre-register for these one-day summits now.
Image via The Facebook Developers Blog