Now that Apple has drawn a line in the side by integrating Twitter inside iOS 5 and further alienating Facebook, it appears that The House That Zuckerberg Built may be planning to take on Cupertino on another front -- with HTML5-based web apps intended to circumvent the iPhone maker’s hold on iOS.

AppleInsider is reporting that Facebook is planning to expand beyond its social network, partnering with “roughly 80 developers” to create HTML5-based applications under the code name “Project Spartan.” The group’s intention appears to be no less than wresting control of mobile app distribution from Apple’s iOS platform.

At least that’s the word according to MG Siegler at TechCrunch, who claims to have actually seen evidence of Project Spartan, which Facebook is coordinating in an effort “to use Apple’s own devices against them to break the stranglehold they have on mobile app distribution.”

Siegler describers “Project Spartan” as “a mobile web version of Facebook with drop-down menus for new apps. Once loaded, those apps would be surrounded by a ‘Facebook wrapper’ that would integrate with the social network, adding features such as Credits, the company’s micropayment system.”

Facebook Credits are likely vital to the success of something like Project Spartan, given that web apps have historically been hard to monetize -- including Apple’s own efforts to push Mobile Safari-based apps on the original iPhone before introducing the App Store concept in 2008. Facebook is actively trying to lure Farmville developer Zynga into the fold in the hopes of speeding up their transition from Adobe Flash to HTML5.

The move sounds a little bit like developers jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire, with Siegler noting “the real goal is to get people using Facebook as the distribution model for games and other apps, not the App Store (or any other distribution hub).”

Apple’s tension with Facebook dates back to the introduction of the Ping social network in iTunes 10, which was initially intended to include integration with Facebook until 18 months of talks broke down over what Apple CEO Steve Jobs called the social network’s “onerous terms.” Meanwhile, Facebook has continued to snub the iPad, which still has no native tablet app 15 months after it was first released.

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