Are Facebook Apps Played Out Or Growing Up?

As MySpace gets ready to launch its version of a Facebook-like app platform, there's a growing debate about the future of Facebook apps themselves. Facebook's decision to open the site up to third-party developers last spring was brilliant, but less than a year later, there's already talk of app burnout.

Data from Adonomics shows that the top Facebook apps ("Funwall", "Movies", "iLike" etc) have all had big dropoffs in users in the past few months. And while app-maker/networks, notably Slide, continue to attract funding, there's a worry that the even the cream of the crop will have a hard time generating real ad revenue.

Fred Wilson, meanwhile has a much sunnier take on apps, as you'd expect from someone who's recently invested in an app-making company. His argument:

1) Facebook apps continue to grow as a percentage of overall Facebook usage, both in time spent and page views. I'd love to see a chart of this if anyone has one. Maybe the master of 500 hats has some data. If so, I'd love to see it.

2) Facebook apps are being monetized very effectively. Probably more effectively than Facebook itself. The ecpms are low, but the volume is high and money is flowing into the app developers pockets