It's better for the overall ecosystem. Higher quality apps means more time spent on your phone. If we can't duplicate the features of the app that aren't domain-specific, it results in an overall worse feel for the end user.
6 karma · joined January 14, 2011
Was NoSQL around back then? They're right about the custom hacking that is required and that Facebook does (i.e. MySQL).
Good web technologies existed at the time. They may have not had Rails or Django but servlets were certainly an option.
Also, facebook should probably be capitalized.
Good luck.
If you are interested, we could give you some API URLs to work with our JSON API at SpeakBin.com - we're an audio recording platform that integrates with Facebook and Twitter. We could use an iPhone app - if you're interested in getting on board drop an e-mail to dev@speakbin.com - I'll get back to you ASAP.