Facebook and Twitter usage has increased on smartphones, transforming social networking into a real-time, on-the-go activity.
Facebook and Twitter, which have been on apps for several years, are increasingly becoming important to carriers and handset makers, and new social media players arrived at the Congress earlier this week, which had previously focused on wireless carriers. For instance, newcomer Foursquare, sent one person to the conference; this year it was a team.
Social media has even found its way into smartphones as handset makers seek to differentiate their products in the crowded market. Earlier this week, Taiwan-based HTC released two new Facebook phones, the ChaCha and Salsa, which feature a dedicated button that allows users to easily access all their online information.
INQ Mobile, meanwhile, has been working with Facebook since 2006, recently introducing Cloud-based smartphones that can access Facebook's news feeds and chat, without having to go into an app first. While social media sites are looking to boost mobile use with these "preloaded" apps, some carriers, like Sprint, prefer not to.
"We prefer to suggest, rather than 'preload,'" said Farid Adib, Sprint's vice president for product development.
However, the dance between mobile devices and social media sites will continue, especially as tools like Facebook and Twitter expand beyond social networking and become platforms in their own right.
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