Loren Brichter, who created the popular Tweetie app for iPhone, sold his app to Twitter recently. As part of the deal, Mr. Brichter will now become a part of Twitter’s mobile applications team, and will develop a version of Tweetie for the iPad, to be called ‘Twitter for iPhone.’ The main reason for the acquisition is that Twitter accepted how confusing it has become to find a mobile outlet for accessing and updated Twitter accounts.
On the company’s blog Twitter CEO Evan Williams said, “Careful analysis of the Twitter user experience in the iTunes AppStore revealed massive room for improvement. People are looking for an app from Twitter, and they’re not finding one, so Twitter chose to team up with Mr. Brichter to offer a Twitter-branded client app for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. “It’s important that we optimize for user benefit and create an awesome experience.” Twitter also plans to offer the app for free instead of US$2.99. Twitter acquires the best of such app with an aim to take full rights of its only third-party independent developer client.
What’s in store for the Mac OS X version of Tweetie is still kept behind closed doors, though Twitter and Mr. Brichter have specifically mentioned the iPhone version of Tweetie in their announcements, but any mention of the Mac version has been evidently absent. Besides, Twitter has recently launched an official Twitter for BlackBerry application, so another mobile application shouldn’t come as much of a shock. And yet, the iPhone is a platform where Twitter has a very strong third party presence, and Twitter has no doubt been benefiting from the contributions of these developers. Though things have been kept quite secret, we need to wait for the company to give its next word over the matter.
Tags: acquisition, applications team, independent developer, iPad, Iphone, loren brichter, mac os x, mobile application, mobile applications, tweetie, user experience