Facebook to Launch iPad App and Project Spartan Early Next Week

According to MG Siegler of TechCrunch, Facebook is set unveil its long awaited iPad app and Project Spartan, the HTML 5-based mobile platform the company has been working on for months, early next week.

We know the iPad app has been ready for a while – which was confirmed by a former Facebook employee – but it appears that Spartan has been ready for quite some time, too. But the company has apparently been working out the kinks with Apple. Better than that, Facebook may unveil these new products at Apple’s iPhone 5 launch next week…
“Earlier this week, Mashable reported that Facebook’s iPad app would launch at Apple’s iPhone event this coming Tuesday. For what it’s worth, we’ve heard Facebook is actually planning to launch the iPad app at their own iPad/Spartan event on Monday. But they’re still discussing all of this with Apple. And Apple has been well known to change things at the last second. It is possible that they want Facebook to launch this on stage at their event to showcase some of the new HTML5 capabilities of iOS 5 (which will also be formally unveiled at the event).

I believe the Monday launch is a fallback option. Facebook is apparently ready to go with or without Apple.”

Would it be surprising if Facebook was invited to speak at Apple’s event? Yes and no. Yes, because the two companies hate each other. And no, because both companies hate Google even more. Teaming up against Google seems to be the strategy adopted by Apple and Facebook.

One thing is sure, next week is going to be a hell of a week for iOS. And of course, we’ll be here to keep you posted!