Is Facebook Home a Huge Success with 500,000 Installs?

Facebook Home FB has officially crossed the 500,000 installations mark. According to Google's GOOG download page for the new app, the installations fall somewhere between 500k and one million. This is significantly lower than the download estimate from Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry. Last week, he said that Facebook Home had been downloaded five million times in less than a week, indicating that the new app launcher had become a worldwide success. While Google's numbers might seem to be contradictory to Chowdhry's estimates, it is not clear if the official install data only accounted for the American market. If it does, then Home appears to be an enormous success. If the data accounts for all downloads, however, then the new app launcher might be lagging behind Facebook's other hot property -- Instagram. Last year, Instagram was downloaded more than one million times on the day it arrived on Android. Less than one week later, Facebook announced that it had the acquired the firm for $1 billion. App developers are watching closely to see if the Facebook Home trend catches on. If it does, it could lead to a legion of copycat apps that attempt to take over users' home screens. One of the challenges in promoting Home is that it only works on a limited number of Android devices, such as the Galaxy S III, Galaxy Note II and the HTC One X. There are a few upcoming devices, such as the Galaxy S IV, that will support the app launcher as well. Facebook also hopes to bring Home to tablets this summer. With so few options currently available, Home might actually be one of the most successful apps of all time -- on a per-device basis, at least. Last week, Apple AAPL was rumored to be considering a version of Home for iOS users. That rumor turned out to be false when Facebook announced that it would bring Chat Heads (one of Home's many new features) to iOS instead. Louis Bedigian is the Senior Tech Analyst and Features Writer of Benzinga. You can reach him at 248-636-1322 or louis(at)benzingapro(dot)com. Follow him @LouisBedigianBZ