The title feels clickbait-y. It should be pretty obvious why there were only 500K downloads- it's only available on around three devices. I'm interested to at least take a look at it, but I can't.
As for the reviews, many of them are of the "I hate Facebook" variety, but others seem to state (correctly) that it need some work. Given Facebook have committed to monthly releases, I don't think this is the end of Facebook Home.
I see it in another way. There's another reason why they have so many downloads - Facebook is a brand name, and people just wanted to try it out, they'll uninstall it the next day.
Even if the 500k number is acceptable since it's only available on selected devices, the 2 stars average rating is undeniable.
As comparison, Facebook for Android app has the average rating of 3,5. So I guess the 2 stars should be taken as an alert for the Facebook Home developers to keep working on it.
A lot of people rate Facebook at 1-star because they don't like Facebook as a whole (I think I saw the term "protest vote" somewhere else in this thread). The reviews that just say "I hate Facebook" clearly aren't indicative of Home as a whole.
A lot of people rate Facebook at 5-stars because they like Facebook. The reviews that say "I wish it still had widgets, apps, etc" clearly shouldn't have 4-5 stars, yet do.
Yeah, there must be lots of people like that. I'm just comparing it to Facebook app which has 3,5 rating (which I'm sure lots of haters 1-star it too but still end up with acceptable rating)
I mentioned this downthread, but Google unlike, say, Amazon doesn't let you rate things you haven't downloaded/purchased. If these really are protest votes, that would mean users are going through the effort of downloading the app, then uninstalling it, then leaving the crap rating.
So either there are some dedicated facebook haters out there, or the people who tried this app really hate it that much...
"How can you tell someone isn't on Facebook? Don't worry -- they'll tell you."
I read this a while back on a HN thread and it resonates more and more by the day -- there are a number of dedicated haters such that such things don't suprise me...it may need a bit rough on the edges but some take it a bit extreme
I rated the Facebook Android app 1 star because it came preinstalled as crapware on my cell phone and there was no way to remove it. I had never downloaded it.
As for the reviews, many of them are of the "I hate Facebook" variety, but others seem to state (correctly) that it need some work. Given Facebook have committed to monthly releases, I don't think this is the end of Facebook Home.