Facebook reportedly was upset at Apple for lack of revenue control over its platform

Facebook developer-turned-Google Inc. (GOOG) developer Jeff Verkoeyen has been cast by TechCrunch into an embarrassing mess regarding his former employers' app for Apple Inc.'s (AAPL) iPad tablet family.

Back in July TechCrunch had leaked word of a slick iPad-ready Facebook app cooked into the default iPhone app. The app required one thing -- that the user have jailbroken their iPad (instructions here).

Yesterday TechCrunch's MC Siegler caught wind of a seemingly irate post on Mr. Verkoeyen's personal blog. In the post he writes:

It is now nearly 5 months since the app was feature complete and I haven’t seen it released except for when the project was leaked on Techcrunch. Needless to say this was a frustrating experience for me. The experience of working on this app was a large contribution to the reasons why I left Facebook, though that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a difficult decision.

He adds:

You probably saw the app when it was infamously leaked via Techcrunch. It was feature-complete by then and for reasons I won’t go into details on the app was repeatedly delayed throughout the summer.

According to the blog, Mr. Verkoeyen complained that the app was supposed to be released in May. And The New York Times reported in June that it was going to be released in July, but it never was.

So why did Facebook supposedly refuse to release this app? Well, according to TechCrunch, Facebook and Apple were working to bring integration of Apple's Ping music network into iOS 5, but the idea was scrapped and replaced with Twitter integration. Apple reportedly wanted an official Facebook app as the unofficial ones weren't very good. Facebook caught wind of this an allegedly decided to use the app as a bargaining chip.

Reportedly Facebook's unwillingness to deploy the Facebook app was rooted in frustration at loss of control and revenue for the app. The site is used to pocketing all the fruit of its advertising and in-app purchases; for the app it would have to give Apple a cut. So Facebook reportedly is working on an HTML5 site rewrite (which some claim is code-named Project Spartan), which would allow the company to avoid apps and maintain complete control of advertising/in-app purchases.

That's an interesting theory, but it's not necessarily confirmed. As for Mr. Verkoeyen, by the sound of it, he was somewhat upset at TechCrunch for sharing his post with the world. He made the site post an update in which he was quoted as saying, "I genuinely enjoyed the time I spent working on that. In no way was I trying to lash out at Facebook."

And he denies TechCrunch's innuendo that his frustrations for the delayed app were his reason for quitting. He also added that the app was completely "done" in May. While feature-complete by the original spec, he says that various employees continued to work on it and add new features as the months went by. And he refused to comment on the speculation about Apple and Facebook's relationship.

Unsurprisingly, Mr. Verkoeyen's blog "Hip me to the Haps" has been taken down, giving a "Error establishing a database connection" message.