Rumor: Facebook to launch iPad-native app at Apple’s October 4th media event

Don’t worry, Mark Zuckerberg’s empire will soon be in native form for your iPad.

Per Mashable, word on the ground is that Facebook will launch its iPad application and an updated iPhone app at Apple’s Oct. 4 media event. Recent reports suggested that Apple will announce the fifth-generation iPhone next Wednesday and that the event will be hosted on Apple’s campus, although the Cupertino, Calif.-based company has not yet issued press invites for the keynote.

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 in weeks. iOS users even found access to the app hidden inside the current version of the iPhone app in July, but the social networking giant quickly blocked access to it.

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 social music service are believed to have contributed to the growing tension between the two companies.

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 that will offer developers the means of porting Facebook apps to mobile devices via HTML5-based web apps.

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.

Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.