At today’s F8 conference, Facebook detailed its massive reach into the mobile realm — announcing the social network now has over 350 million mobile users and is now working with over 475 mobile operators around the world to “deploy and promote Facebook mobile products.”

Here in the US most of us access Facebook via our Android or iOS devices, for example, but elsewhere around the world the company is working directly with mobile operators to make Facebook available on any device, whether it’s a smartphone or not.  In some cases, the operators themselves are even paying all the costs to make it happen.  It’s obvious that Facebook sees the future of its service on mobile devices, and it’s likely not via apps.

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Facebook – the social media juggernaut now worth an estimated $50 billion – has released a new mobile application for feature phones.

“We want people to have a great mobile experience no matter what type of phone they carry,” writes Mark Heynen, a program manager at Facebook. “Smartphones have offered better features for sharing with friends but aren’t used by most people around the world.”

According to Heynen, who announced the app’s launch on the Facebook Blog, the Facebook for Feature Phones app works on more than 2,500 devices from Nokia, Sony Ericsson, LG and other manufacturers, and it was built in close cooperation with Snaptu.

“The app provides a better Facebook experience for our most popular features, including an easier-to-navigate home screen, contact synchronization, and fast scrolling of photos and friend updates,” Heynen says.

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On the heels of announcing a major mobile push with “Places,” Facebook announced today usage numbers for its various mobile apps — namely iOS, Android and Blackberry.

A big reason Facebook Places was such a big deal in the LBS world was Facebook’s massive installed mobile user base.  To give a glimpse of that user base, Facebook indicates there are nearly 105 million active monthly iPhone users.  This is truly impressive given the fact that Apple themselves said only a few months ago that they were approaching 100 million total iOS users.  If this is true, it could indicate nearly every iPhone user is using the Facebook app, though that’s doubtful and some obvious variables exist in the figures.

While its iOS app is by far the most widely used, BlackBerry comes in second with 60M total active users using the Facebook application, which is impressive as well.  On the Android front, Facebook indicates an installed user base of roughly 12 million, which seems low, but remember the Facebook app for Android has always left a lot to be desired when compared to its iOS brethren.  With these figures, it’s no wonder why Places is only natively available in the iPhone app, though the others are coming.

It was reported today that Facebook is likely in late-stage negotiations with “social activity” service Hot Potato for an acquisition.

Hot Potato allows users to share what they’re doing using a dead simple Web interface, or through its iPhone app.  User’s can instantly share what they’re listening to, watching or reading, and even check-in to venues to let friends know where they’re at.  This “social activity” is prime for Facebook’s strategy, especially for mobile.

While it’s already been speculated that the acquisition could signal Facebook’s entry into the “check-in” craze, it’s likely a move to acquire the startup’s engineering team, which has built a pretty nice looking iPhone app.  Still, Facebook wants to become a primarily mobile service, with location obviously playing a huge role going forward.

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