With its 845 million active users, Facebook still overshadows Twitter, which had 100 million active users in September 2011. Despite competition from Twitter and Google's new kid on the block, Google+, Facebook is not a social network, it's the social network, and many Apple users would surely like to see it integrated more deeply into the OS.
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Now, Facebook isn't 100% absent from OS X. In Mountain Lion, Apple did add the option to share to Facebook from QuickTime, and iPhoto has had Facebook sharing for some time. Even Apple, for all its influence and money, can't deny that Facebook is the most popular place on the web for sharing photos and videos. But the integration with the service is the absolute minimum, amounting to barely an acknowledgment.
For some reason, Apple went with Twitter, leaving Facebook on the sidelines and adding another awkward silence to the uneasy relationship between the two companies.
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SEE ALSO: Apple Unveils Mac OS X Mountain Lion: So Long iChat, Hello TwitterIt's been going on for a while. Apple's music social network, iTunes Ping, was originally slated to be integrated with Facebook, but Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg were allegedly unable to work out the details. In the end, Apple went with Twitter (it ultimately didn't help Ping, which is now forgotten by almost everyone).
The Facebook iPad app was, by most accounts, late -- Twitter's iPad app was available 13 months earlier. And finally, Apple's iOS 5 came with deep Twitter integration, and Facebook was not in the picture.
Twitter, Twitter, Twitter -- notice a pattern there? Time and time again, Apple was apparently unable to work out a deal with Facebook, and every time it went with its comparatively lightweight, chirpy competitor. The fact that Twitter is the social network of choice in Mountain Lion is no surprise -- it's just a continuation of this trend.
Officially, everything is hunky dory. "iOS is an important platform for Facebook and we have a good relationship with Apple, working closely with their developer relations team on our Facebook and Messenger apps," a Facebook spokesman told us, unwilling to comment on the matter further. Obviously, the two companies are working together in some capacity -- after all, Facebook has apps on all Apple platforms.
But, judging by the integration of Facebook in Apple's products, a "good relationship" isn't a "great relationship," and it definitely isn't as cozy as Apple's relationship with Twitter.
Part of the reason may be bad communication and mistrust between the two companies. For example, Apple reportedly didn't trust in Facebook’s ability to build a great iPhone application, and the shaky history between the two companies is now probably a hurdle in itself.
Technical hurdles are a possibility, too. Perhaps the absence, at the OS-level, of Facebook, Google+ and YouTube is merely an API issue. The fact that Microsoft, Apple's long time arch-enemy, owns a small part of Facebook probably complicates matters, too.
But there could be another, more important reason: Facebook has become too big of a competitor to Apple. Although both Twitter and Facebook make money from online advertising, Facebook is an app platform, and Twitter is not. This fact alone makes it just a little bit too close to what Apple is doing. Although Apple makes the majority of money selling hardware, the company also sells software, and lots of it.
Put all of these reasons together, and it's quite possible that Apple doesn't really foresee a long-term relationship with Facebook without a messy divorce.
The next iteration of Mac OS X might very well be the unification version -- the one that finally gathers Apple's smartphone, tablet and desktop computers under the umbrella of one OS. If we don't see Facebook integration by then, it's fair to say that these two friends will never get in bed together.
Meet the Mountain Lion.
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This story originally published on Mashable here.
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