Agreed, when I read the article I came to the conclusion that Facebook just defined a new "something", not channel but maybe an aspect is a better description,

Agreed, when I read the article I came to the conclusion that Facebook just defined a new "something", not channel but maybe an aspect is a better description, to the app ecosystem. I hate lauding Facebook but this really seems like they are getting all the upside of forking Android or doing their own hardware with almost none of the downside (massive engineering costs).