Facebook Buys Snaptu for Services on Feature Phones

After building the Facebook for feature phones application earlier this year, Snaptu's allowing itself to be acquired by Facebook.

Padmini Harchandrai|Mar 21, 2011, 10:14:24 IST

Social networking giant Facebook is buying British feature phone app developer Snaptu. Snaptu said in a blog post that after working on the Facebook for feature phones app earlier this year, they've allowed themselves to be bought by the social networking giant. The Facebook for feature phones app that they made currently works on more than 2500 devices and being acquired by Facebook only means bigger and more apps for people who don't have smartphones.

Facebook's buying this bad boy

Snaptu is a company that provides Java based phones with social networking functions like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn as well as some web services like Flickr and Nimbuzz. These Java based apps look like their smartphone counterparts but are accessible to users who don't own smartphones. Snaptu says the deal will close within a few weeks. They've also said during this transition period, Snaptu will work as it always does but it will be interesting to note whether they will continue to support applications for Facebook's 'rivals' like Twitter and LinkedIn after the transition is complete.

By Padmini Harchandrai

Paddy does not, we repeat, definitely does NOT belong in the category of Mac-head (yeh right!). She does get excited by her iPhone and her iMac and her iPod Nano and her Macbook and Bali's iPad and her future iHouse (patent pending). Ok, so maybe her head is a little bit forbidden fruit shaped. She likes shooting video (iPhone 4 camera zindabad!) and editing montages (Final Cut Pro zindabad!), whether the scene calls for it or no. In her spare time, she's either kicking it on stage with KB the keyboard or kicking butt at Taekwondo.