On the heels of announcing a major mobile push with “Places,” Facebook announced today usage numbers for its various mobile apps — namely iOS, Android and Blackberry.
A big reason Facebook Places was such a big deal in the LBS world was Facebook’s massive installed mobile user base. To give a glimpse of that user base, Facebook indicates there are nearly 105 million active monthly iPhone users. This is truly impressive given the fact that Apple themselves said only a few months ago that they were approaching 100 million total iOS users. If this is true, it could indicate nearly every iPhone user is using the Facebook app, though that’s doubtful and some obvious variables exist in the figures.
While its iOS app is by far the most widely used, BlackBerry comes in second with 60M total active users using the Facebook application, which is impressive as well. On the Android front, Facebook indicates an installed user base of roughly 12 million, which seems low, but remember the Facebook app for Android has always left a lot to be desired when compared to its iOS brethren. With these figures, it’s no wonder why Places is only natively available in the iPhone app, though the others are coming.