Strobe is a small startup that is based in the San Francisco area and they have created a developer platform based on HTML5. Yesterday, social network giant Facebook announced they had just purchased the startup company. The company’s platform supports a wide range of devices and operating systems like iOS and Android. Any and all financial details were left out of the report because they did not have to be disclosed.
A statement from Strobe was issued after the purchase and it read, “Strobe was founded on the belief that HTML5 can transform the way average people use their mobile phones through apps that are available everywhere, anytime, on any device. Now we’re joining the talented people at Facebook to help develop innovative mobile experiences for their users around the world. Strobe has been a fantastic adventure. Thank you to everyone who has supported us. We look forward to working with you again in our future roles.”
Strobe has developed an open-sourced Javascript framework, called SproutCore, and that lets developers create Web-based applications. Strobe is headed by a former Apple engineer, Charles Jolley, who left Apple to start Strobe in 2010. Strobe will continue to provide for existing customers with their beta version and the SproutCore project will also continue independently.
Facebook also released a statement and it read, “We’re excited to confirm that we’ve completed a talent acquisition for Strobe Corp., a mobile-app-development startup based in San Francisco. Founder and Chief Executive Officer Charles Jolley will join our mobile engineering team, and we’re looking forward to the major impact the Strobe team will undoubtedly make at Facebook.” Facebook has been working on expanding into the mobile industry more, which allows developers the chance to use social networks for app discovery and also take advantage of the Facebook Credits payment system.
It appears that Facebook is taking the mobile options seriously, as the purchase of Strobe indicates, and it is likely that the employees at Strobe will help Facebook get more involved in mobile app development. Facebook allows developers to build for Apple iOS and the mobile Facebook app, but building for the Android operating system is next on the company’s “to-do” list. The Facebook Credits Payment system has been talked about a lot lately and as Facebook apps and games move to the mobile platform, it is important that system follows right along with it.
