Yesterday evening Om Malik posted about the new Facebook application for the Sony Ericsson Xperia phone. As the Xperia device runs on Windows Mobile, the release makes this the first Facebook app optimized for a Windows Mobile platform. Having already conquered the iPhone and Blackberry (including an upgraded version early next year), Facebook apps are on their way to becoming standard ware for mobile users.

The allure of having the most used Facebook functions, such as updating one’s status, viewing photos and receiving notifications, while on the go has only been enhanced by a smart phone’s unique ability to tie in some of these features with the device itself. Free to download, Facebook for the new Xperia phone appears to have all the basic functions down, but Malik seems to think that even Xperia’s impressive Windows-powered operating system isn’t enough to put Xperia’s Facebook app in the same category as the iPhone Facebook app. 

Whether this is due to an overlapping demographic of iPhone and Facebook users along with a year+ for developing a highly optimized Facebook application for the iPhone, or other reasons, I imagine that the ongoing interest in sleek smart phone designs will only further development of well-integrated apps from Facebook and others.