Archive for May, 2010
16 items.
First of all, let me just state for the record that it would be impossible for me to launch a conversation on either mainstream sports, or the number of cylinders in a car. Not only that, but should the subject be put forth, I would do what Klingers does when the conversation turns to Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Shoot it down faster than a politician presented with logic.
For today, I’d like to talk about Twitter. Until recently, the only official way to post and view tweets were either from the website, or from a mobile phone’s SMS functionality. However, Twitter inc. noticed that people were looking for official mobile clients with more functionality, and in response, started developing their own clients for Android and Blackberry, and bought out the best iPhone Twitter client Tweetie 2.
Most people thought that this would kill the Twitter client market, why pay for a Twitter client when one of the best ones available is free? I personally didn’t really care, as my favourite client WAS Tweetie 2, and as long as it didn’t get ruined by Twitter inc., I would be happy.
Well, it’s happened, Tweetie has become Twitter for iPhone and you know what? Third party clients are still around, and new ones are even showing up, just as before. In fact, I think in the world of Twitter, we now have more high quality choice because of the move. By making Tweetie official and free, it’s set the point where third party clients have to be better then in order to sell. Who would purchase a client of poorer quality than the free official client?
It’s also forced third party developers to think outside the box in order to entice customers. Seesmic for iPhone for example came out recently, and apart from being a rather nice Twitter client, it also does Facebook to a similar standard.
Seesmic hasn’t stolen me away yet, but it’s still at 1.0. Tweetie didn’t have me until 2.0, so Seesmic could become my favourite yet. Or maybe I’ll get the Tapbots client when that comes out, they certainly do know how to make pretty apps… Oh the choices!
As usual, comment in the forums!
