Facebook recently announced its decision to open its own app store called App Center to help people find Facebook apps, Web apps, and mobile apps at one place, but some experts see some other reasons behind the social-networking site's recent move.

Some analysts see Facebook's App Center as an answer to Zynga's recent launch of its own social game portal on Zynga. com. Zynga. com is Facebook-friendly, but no one knows when the friendship between the two may end. Around 15 per cent of Facebook's first quarter revenues were from Zynga games.

Facebook has described its App Center as a central place to find social web, desktop as well as mobile apps. It means, the most popular social network of the world wants to create a real application system that is not biased by a particular device, search engine, browser, social network or operating system.

Apps play a vital role in making a particular phone popular. The large number of apps available in Apple's App Store is one of the biggest reasons behind the great popularity of the iPhone. Facebook's App Center will pave the foundation for Facebook's potential social phone.

Facebook, which has more than 900 million users worldwide, is going to become public by selling nearly 337.4 million shares for $28 to $35 apiece in its initial public offering (IPO) later this month.