Zuck On Facebook’s Mobile Experience: It Gets Better (But We Probably Won’t Make Our Own Phone)

Anyone who has used Facebook on a smartphone or tablet knows that the social network still has a ways to go when it comes to nailing the mobile experience. Turns out that Mark Zuckerberg is well aware of this — and on the company’s Q2 2012 earnings call with investors and analysts this afternoon, he vowed that his team is on it.

Zuckerberg said:

“Facebook is the most used app on basically every mobile platform. So when we think about what we want to do right now, we want to increase the depth of experience in addition to just growing users. We want to not just have applications that people use, but also be deeply integrated into these systems as much as possible, and develop an ecosystem where other apps can be built on top of Facebook.”

But the strategy now is to have Facebook work closely with existing operating systems such as Apple’s iOS, he said, “as opposed to building out a whole [Facebook] phone which wouldn’t really make sense for us here.” That should quash the ever-recurring rumor of an upcoming Facebook phone platform, at least for a few days.

Zuck minced no words in assessing the Facebook mobile experience’s status quo, while still expressing optimism for the future:

“I think we’re really much closer to the beginning than the end [for mobile development.] If you use the apps today I think they’re relatively basic compared to what anybody would want from a Facebook experience on the phone.”

To tackle the mobile issue and other challenges, Zuckerberg said, the company has been investing like crazy — through hiring as many good engineers as possible, acqui-hiring mobile-savvy startups, and making big buys like Instagram.

For more in-depth coverage on Facebook’s Q2 earnings call, check out my colleague Josh Constine’s exhaustive coverage here: Highlights From Mark Zuckerberg And Sheryl Sandberg On Facebook’s First Earnings Call