As many readers know, back in 2007 I put forward the concept of MyTop. This was a personalised portal which you used on every one of the devices (PC, smartphone, tablet, internet café etc) you used to access the internet and all your personal ‘stuff’ – both personal and business - in ‘the cloud’. Back then Facebook was closer to MyTop than anything else and I really thought that they could/would deve
lop that way.
In April, in a big fanfare, Facebook launched Home. We were ‘underwhelmed’ as we wrote at the time in Facebook home is no MyTop. A huge disappointment and lost opportunity.
Today the FT reports Facebook delays launch of UK launch of HTC First on poor reviews of Home app. Facebook Home has only been available in the US and has been panned by users. Downloads of the app have ‘plummeted in the past 30 days” and HTC has cut the cost of the phone with Home pre-installed from $99 to 99 cents.
There is, I still believe, a huge opportunity for someone to develop a MyTop. But it has got to be a ‘serious’ interface. It has to be something that I would not be embarrassed for others to see if I put my smartphone or tablet face up on the board room table. I certainly wouldn’t want my grandson’s Facebook status updates as my home screen!