Facebook announces three-city Mobile DevCon 2013

Facebook has revealed details about Mobile DevCon 2013, a trio of events this spring, in three of the largest cities on the planet, that's intended to connect Facebook engineers, product managers, and "like-minded mobile developers."

The Mobile Developer Conference series will kick off in New York City on April 18, followed by a stop in London on May 2, and then concluding in Seoul on May 7.

Noting that there are more than 680 million active users on mobile, Facebook reasserted that it has been focused on improving mobile offerings over the last year, citing improvements across both the iOS and Android apps, the re-engineering of the iOS and Android SDKs, and the launching of dedicated developer centers for iOS, Android, and mobile Web.

Furthermore, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg also stressed Facebook's commitment to mobile at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco last fall while knocking HTML5 in favor of native apps.

With news of these mobile-focused development events, it may seem natural for some to rehash rumors of a dedicated Facebook smartphone.

Nevertheless, based on Zuckerberg's repeated denials of such a device as well as the list of topics that will be covered at Mobile DevCon, it still seems very unlikely.

Facebook engineer Simon Cross also mentioned in a blog post today that these are "highly technical" events in which "we'll be deep in product and code."

For reference, some of the topics that will be covered at Mobile DevCon include how to implement mobile SDKs to drive installations and engagement, how to implement Facebook Login and Open Graph, and more about which techniques Facebook uses to build its own mobile apps.

Interested mobile developers, engineers, and product managers -- or anyone else "at the sharp end of mobile app development" -- can preregister for these one-day summits now.

This story originally appeared at ZDNet's Between the Lines under the headline "Facebook announces Mobile Developer Conference 2013."