Facebook's new App Center should make branded mobile apps more discoverable and therefore more lucrative to build, according to industry players. The Menlo Park, CA-based digital giant last week unveiled a platform where its 900 million users can search for mobile and web apps while also seeing recommendations based on their social graphs.

"People will find apps based on pure relationships," said Julie Renwick, director of mobile for ad agency Ogilvy North America. "What's interesting is that your close circle of peers…you talk to them anyway via email, IM, etc. But now it's the second- and third-tier circle of peer influence that will come into the application recommendation. That will be...