Facebook for iPad app may launch at Apple’s Oct. iPhone 5 event – report

Facebook will launch the iPad application and an updated iPhone app at the Oct. 4 event, Mashable reported on Monday. Recent reports suggested that Apple will announce the fifth-generation iPhone

">next Tuesday

On Monday, Facebook's former lead developer for the iPad app, Jeff Verkoeyen, revealed that he had left the social networking company in part because of personal frustrations at the slow progress made by the company after the project reached the feature-complete stage in May. The feature-complete phase is usually the final step before beta tests can take place.

In June, it was reported that the Facebook for iPad application

">would launch

The app’s repeated delays were explained by Mashable’s sources as stemming from a “combination of timing and strained relationship with Apple.” Recent disagreements over Facebook integration in iOS and Facebook Connect support in Apple's

">Ping

Given that the original iPad was announced more than a year and a half ago, the fact that Facebook has yet to release an iPad app has been viewed by some as a slight to Apple. Several reports have suggested that the company held the native iPad app as leverage in negotiations with Apple.

The forthcoming update to the Facebook for iPhone app is expected to offer “design and speed improvements that mimic the iPad app,” the publication noted.

Facebook is also rumored to unveil its own HTML5-based mobile app store, currently known by the codename “Project Spartan,” at the Apple event. Project Spartan is said to be a

">mobile platform

First rumored in June, the project has reportedly gained Apple's support. According to Monday's report, the company apparently decided not to announce it at last week’s F8 developer conference so as not to distract from new Facebook features such as the Timeline and the Facebook Open Graph.